Mustangs Work On ‘Can Do’ Mind-set
By Jack Danilewicz
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If all goes according to plan, Kalaheo will catch its second wind this week - just in time for the Oahu Interscholastic Association’s football postseason.
“It has been a long season, and timing is everything,” admitted coach Chris Mellor. “We want to keep getting better and peak at the right time.”
For the Mustangs, there’s no better time than now. Coming off a 1-7 season in 2006, Kalaheo has transformed itself into one of the top prep stories of 2007 with four wins heading into last weekend’s finale with McKinley.
Including the preseason, Kalaheo won four of its first five games before back-to-back losses to Farrington and Kailua. An open date on the schedule followed, allowing Mellor time for reflection as they looked to regroup.
“We felt like we were ahead of things coming out of camp,” he said. “Lately, we’ve been working hard to get out of our funk. I told the kids,‘tough times don’t last - tough people do.’ Hopefully, it will all come together in the playoffs. Our first goal was to make the OIA playoffs. Our second goal is to make states. We’ll be very competitive. We’re not going in to just see how we do. We feel like we can beat anyone on any given day if we go in with a competitive mind-set. The power of the mind is very strong.”
The team is making its first post-season appearance since 2003 when it was still in Division II. It was to learn of its OIA seeding over the weekend after the Red East’s regular season wrapped and the league announced its pairings. Mellor was hoping Kalaheo could earn the East Red’s No. 3 seed, which would have given them an open date this weekend. But regardless of whether or not the Mustangs begin their postseason this week or next, they figure to stack up as one of the more dangerous teams in the OIA because of their ability to execute their veer offense. An extra week of preparation at this time in the season could only help their cause.
Kalaheo entered last weekend averaging an OIA-best 292.2 yards of total offense per game. Its potent attack has been helped along by its balance, with 639 of its yards coming on the ground and 822 through the air.
The catalyst has been quarterback Cody von Appen. A three-year starter, he has thrown for 822 yards and three touchdowns and has been even more adept at making plays with his feet, contributing clutch runs throughout most of the season.
“Cody doesn’t like to lose, so he’s itching to get back out there after our bye week,“Mellor said late last week before the McKinley game. “We scored a lot of points early on, but we think we can do better (offensively). We have to buckle up in the red zone. We’ve struggled there in the last two games, and that has slowed us down.”
Although von Appen makes the offense go with his decision-making, Kalaheo is hardly short on play-makers. Wide-outs Kao Malama-Custer (19 catches, 316 yards, two touchdowns) and Bruce Andrews (23 receptions, 244 yards, one touchdown) both rate among the league leaders at their position, while Larry Soto and Max Karsten have provided a strong run game.
Karsten had been slowed by an injury of late, but Mellor was hopeful he’ll return to full strength soon.
“Larry has really stepped up - he’s taken most of the carries lately,” Mellor said. “He’s a great kid, a 4.0 student.”
The Mustangs also were buoyed late last week by the news that twoway lineman Riley Atanoa was healthy again and was expected to start against McKinley. He had missed the entire Kailua game after going down with an injury on the second series of the Sept. 22 Farrington game. “That really changes things for us on both sides of the ball,“Mellor said of Atanoa’s return.
Atanoa’s presence might benefit Kalaheo’s defense the most. He is the team’s nose guard on the defensive side, where the Mustangs are looking for improvement. “We haven’t found the answers yet as to why we’re not more productive on that side of the ball,” Mellor admitted. “We need to buckle up on defense.
“The numbers speak for themselves. We started out good, but now we’ve given up more points than anyone (in the East Red).” Their defense is giving up an average of 248.6 yards per game.
The top five finishers in the OIA’s postseason will earn berths in next month’s First Hawaiian Bank Division I State Football Championships.
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