Posted on: Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Game loses luster without Lee
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Cal Lee's announcement that he will step down as St. Louis School's football coach surprised Terry Eidson, but not in the way it surprised most people here.
Eidson, the athletic director for renowned De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., said Lee is the third prominent football coach of potential Spartans opponents to announce his resignation in the past seven weeks. On May 23, Jerry Jaso resigned as head coach at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly, which finished last season ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today. De La Salle was No. 1. The two teams will meet Oct. 6.
Jaso, who had been an assistant or head coach at Poly since 1980, now is a physical education instructor and linebackers coach at Long Beach City College.
Mike Vogt, coach of Central Valley power Buchanan (Clovis, Calif.), resigned three weeks ago to become the athletic director at College of the Sequioas (Visalia, Calif.). Vogt had been Buchanan's only head coach in the program's 10-year history.
Buchanan, which won last season's Central Section top-level championship, will host De La Salle in this year's opener. Buchanan beat Iolani 35-0 last season.
And now Lee, Hawai'i's winningest high school coach, has said the upcoming season will be his last. After years of talk of a game between St. Louis and De La Salle, the two storied programs may finally meet Sept. 21, 2002, under a plan being worked on by Hawai'i High School Athletic Association executive director Keith Amemiya.
"What? You gotta be kidding me!" Eidson said by phone Monday night, upon learning about Lee's decision. "That's amazing. Everybody we're playing is leaving."
Amemiya is trying to put together a doubleheader for next year pitting De La Salle and Southern California power Mater Dei-Santa Ana against the reigning champions of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and the O'ahu Interscholastic Association. In the past three years, those teams have been St. Louis and Kahuku, respectively.
The plan calls for the highest-rated California team to meet the highest-rated Hawai'i team at Aloha Stadium. Recently, those teams have been De La Salle and St. Louis.
"I think it will take away something if Cal's not there, there's no doubt about that," said Eidson, also the Spartans' defensive coordinator. "I know Cal's done a great job over there, and when a legend leaves, it hurts."
Eidson said the doubleheader is no less attractive from De La Salle's point of view, but he suggested Lee's absence may affect the local appeal of the games.
"As far as taking the luster off of it, I think it affects Hawai'i more than us," Eidson said. "The whole idea for this thing, at least from my understanding, came from the fact that Hawai'i plays good football out there, and they wanted to show it by playing the good teams from California. I think this makes it tougher for St. Louis."
Lee's decision ends the possibility of two of the nation's most successful coaches matching wits. His counterpart at De La Salle, Bob Ladouceur, has compiled a record of 249-14-1 in 22 seasons with the Spartans. Lee's record at St. Louis is 231-31-4 in 20 seasons.
Ladouceur's teams have won 14 North Coast Section championships, the rough equivalent of the Prep Bowl. Lee's Crusaders have won 14 Prep Bowl titles and one state championship.
Last Saturday, Lee said next year's proposed doubleheader was not a factor in his decision. But he did express regret that he will never coach against De La Salle, saying he wished the game had been arranged earlier.
