Posted on: Sunday, August 5, 2001

Young talent, transfers have Waialua envisioning playoffs

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

The air is different at Waialua High's football camp this year.

You can smell confidence.

The Bulldogs, winners of one game since 1995, are thinking playoffs.

This is the small North Shore school that nearly folded its program in 1998 for lack of interest and forfeited its final scheduled game last season when its roster dwindled to 14 healthy players.

Senior linebacker and slotback Ikaika Soares (almost all the Bulldogs play both offense and defense) says, "to tell the truth I have no doubt we can make it (to playoffs)."

"Our JVs (junior varsity) missed the playoffs by one game last year. It was a big turnaround, like UH in 1999," he explains.

Those juniors up from the JV team almost all started playing football in the Pop Warner program before they reached high school, he says. "For them, playing football is second nature, instead of having to play boys who don't know what football is."

That was the situation the last three years, Soares said, when boys were encouraged to play just to keep the program alive.

And then there are the six transfers from state champion Kahuku.

There is a difference of opinion between Soares and school administrators as to why the six got district exemptions to attend Waialua. "They are transfer students who turned out for football, not transfer football players," says athletic director Sharon Yoshimura.

"They came here for things like our electric car program, our robotics program and our computer lab," another administrator said.

Five of the transfers were sophomores on the junior varsity at Kahuku last year; one was a varsity reserve. "The Kahuku guys are good," Soares said, "but there are so many good players at Kahuku they were not getting much playing time so they came to Waialua to get a chance to play."

Soares said the transfers have assimilated into the Bulldog team much faster than he anticipated. "It's like one big family," he said. "The football boys sit at the same table at lunch. We've meshed in just a little time."

Whatever their motivation for changing schools, Waialua coach Donald "Chico" Capello is happy to have them aboard. Last year, the Bulldogs had 25 players on their program roster. On Thursday, Yoshimura says, there were 36 at practice and Capello says 50 freshmen and sophomores signed up for JVs.

"Skill-wise, time will tell, but with them we can have better practices. We can scrimmage 11-on-11," Capello said.

He said the Kahuku expatriates "are decent people, humble and hard working, but they will need to adapt to a different style. Their offense is to run over people. We are trying to finesse it here."

Capello and Soares, one of Waialua's captains all three years on the varsity, are high on this year's Bulldogs. "The overall attitude of the players and their willingness to work is a big difference from two years ago," Capello said. "It's easier to coach when their heads are in it."

"Everyone has the same desire, these people want to win," Soares said. "We have a lot of goals, like scoring three touchdowns a game, but the main one is to make the playoffs."

Soares added, "We don't have the biggest players, certainly not the biggest numbers, but we've got the biggest hearts."