Campbell’s Injured Take A Breather

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For all their efforts during spring practice, Campbell head football coach Tumoana Kenessey and staff spent as much time communicating with their training staff as they did evaluating talent.

“It was very difficult for us to access spring ball,” said Kenessey, now entering his seventh season as Campbell’s head coach.“We had a lot of returnees hurt just before we began, so they weren’t able to go. Key leadership was not in place. You hope that they’re there to model what we do for the younger guys. We also had kids miss practices because of finals and school projects.We didn’t have a full squad out there any one day. We know what we had. The question is what we have coming up (from JV).

The Sabers averaged 45 to 50 varsity players during spring work-outs, but were without six projected starters, who missed all 10 of the practices allotted under OIA guidelines. The good news for the Sabers is that they are now in the midst of a three-week break that should enable the injured players to heal for summer practices.

Kenessey elected not to have a spring game as a precaution.

“For safety reasons, we didn’t want to put the kids at risk,” he said. “You have to make sure you have enough conditioning and practice time in.”

The Sabers report for summer football next Monday. They will take part in a Passing League that will be evenly divided among OIA and Interscholastic League of Honolulu teams from July 1 through 15. Campbell officially opens fall camp on July 31.

Despite an injury-riddled spring, expectations remain high for the Sabers, who went 6-1 last season in the OIA’s White Division, which earned them a first-place tie with Radford and Moanalua. The Sabers, who will move up to Division I and compete in the West-Red in the fall, have won four division titles in the last six years, including both the Division II OIA and 2004 state football championships.

The Sabers have established themselves as one of the more difficult teams to prepare for in the state, having installed the Wing-T (four-back set) offense three years ago. The scheme remains in their plans again for this season, although Kenessey stopped short of saying that starting positions were earned during spring drills. Indeed, all jobs remain open entering the summer sessions as well as fall camp.

The OIA allows only three days of full contact, which makes it perhaps more difficult to evaluate talent at Campbell than at other schools, given the Sabers’ physical, run-oriented style.

“A lot of kids look great without pads on. Once they put them on, you’ll know who your players are. The best thing about the spring was that we had some kids step up and take on leadership roles,” he added. “We knew where our strengths were - in the line-backing corps - and that hasn’t changed. We have some kids on the offensive line that are stepping up as well.

“I was real proud of the kids who came every day and worked hard. They benefitted from it. There were a lot of positives. The young kids got a chance to get in a lot more repetitions, and they did well.”