Spring Practice Can’t Come Soon Enough For Red Raiders

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One in a series of spring football reports.

In a sense, the moment Kahuku’s 2007 football season ended, its 2008 season began, to hear third-year coach Reggie Torres tell it.

“It left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth - the coaching staff, the players, the community,” said Torres, whose team was upset by Kapolei in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association post-season.

“We had higher goals, and we didn’t meet them. We want to have a better season this year. As a staff, we worked at trying to find new ways to upgrade our system.”

At a glance, the Red Raiders still had a good season by most programs’ standards in 2007, finishing 6-3 and winning the OIA Red East regular-season crown. But the aforementioned loss to Kapolei eliminated an opportunity to play in the state tournament, which the Red Raiders had dominated in recent years, winning five of the last eight.

Kahuku, which has claimed 11 of the last 15 OIA titles, was to take the first steps toward its 2008 season Tuesday by starting spring practice. Under OIA guidelines, they are allotted a two-week period in which to hold 10 practices, five of which will include live contact.

Kahuku’s public unveiling is set for 6:30 p.m. June 2, at its annual spring game. (A freshman game will precede the varsity game at 5 p.m.)

Spring practice is perhaps of added value to the coaching staff when it comes to evaluating personnel, given the huge numbers that turn out annually at Kahuku. The varsity roster traditionally exceeds 80 players.

Adding to the intrigue this spring at Kahuku will be a handful of key position switches in addition to a quarterback battle between seniors Allen Kubota and Siatima Tapusoa. They both backed up last year’s starter, Jray Galeai. Galeai will be moving more exclusively to safety this spring - the position he is most likely to play in college - and will remain as a return specialist on both punts and kickoffs.

“We can do more with Jray there (at safety and as a returner) - we can do more with his talent,” Torres said of Galeai, who is being heavily recruited by Division I schools. “Jray going to the defense gives us an extra threat there. He’s a stud.”

Torres is expecting both Kubota and Tapusoa to play big roles regardless of who ends up behind center as the starter in the fall.

“We won’t have a senior athlete of their ability sitting on the bench,” Torres said. “One will move to another position. They’re both great athletes. It’s hard to separate them right now. It should be a great battle. We’ll see who steps up and shows some confidence.”

Galeai’s skills should add plenty to a defense that already returns senior strong safety Irwin Ah-Hoy and free safety Aulola Tonga. This spring, Ah-Hoy will move to the WIL linebacker spot, while Tonga will stay in the secondary.

“Irwin is being looked at by a lot of colleges,” Torres said of Ah-Hoy, who is a three-sport athlete at Kahuku. “He has a lot of talent, and he’s versatile. He has good feet - he’s going to be a great player for us. DI schools really like Aulola, too. He’s not afraid to bring the hat. He has great speed and, more so, great size, at 6-3, 195 pounds.”

Offensively, the ground game figures to be in good hands with the return of senior running back St. John Lessary III, who led the Red East in rushing a year ago.

“His versatility and vision are his strength,” Torres said.“He sees the field, and he can make great cuts.”

Among the team priorities this spring will be to become less one-dimensional, offensively, according to their coach.

“We want to shore up our offense and be more diverse. We have a lot of kids coming back who can do different things.

Defensively, we gave up too many yards last year. We were a bend-and-not-break defense. We felt we should have done better.”

Now in his third season at the helm, Torres is hoping the transition that comes with a coaching change is now in the past. Last season, the Red Raiders struggled with internal and external issues that threatened to divide the team.

“I expected this to be a three-year progression, even in winning (a state championship) the first year,” he said. “The kids are starting to understand us (coaches) more now as we move into our third year.”