Pila named acting football coach at Farrington

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

David Pila, a Kalihi Valley native who has been part of Farrington High School's athletic program for almost 20 years, will be the Governors' acting head football coach this season.

Pila, 33, takes over for Harold Tanaka, who is serving as the school's acting athletic director in place of the retired Agenhart Ellis. Tanaka is a candidate for the permanent AD position, which is expected to officially be filled in September.

Pila said he still is not officially the head coach, and he is willing to step aside and have Tanaka step back in if he does not get the AD job. But Tanaka said last night, "David's the guy, no matter what."

Pila, a 1985 graduate of Farrington, lettered in football and basketball for the Governors. He graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in 1993 and has been a physical education teacher at Farrington the past six years.

Pila also has been the school's head boys basketball coach the past three seasons and said he plans to keep that position at least for this year. He was an assistant JV football coach from 1988-96 and a varsity assistant the past four seasons, coaching the defensive backs.

But Pila acknowledges that being head football coach at Farrington is a big step.

"It's tough shoes to fill," Pila said. "There haven't been too many people in this position."

When Tanaka took over in 1999, the Governors had only three head coaches in the previous 40 seasons. During the tenures of Tom Kiyosaki (1959-65), Al Espinda (1966-81) and Skippa Diaz (1982-98), Farrington had only five losing seasons.

Since the O'ahu Interscholastic Association went to a power-based classification in 1992, only Farrington, Kahuku and Wai'anae have stayed in the top-tier Red Division every year.

"There's definitely big expectations," Pila said.

Part of the Farrington tradition has been a strong running game, which has featured such standout backs as Wally Yonamine, Bob Apisa, Onosai Tanuvasa, Nuu Faaola and Randall Okimoto. Pila said he wants to go back to those roots while adding in other wrinkles.

"We'll go back to a running offense, but we'll incorporate other things into the fold," Pila said. "We'll play hard all the way through and be a class act — something the community can always be proud of."

• Notes: The OIA advised coaches of several rule changes at last night's meeting, the most notable of which requires a warm-up period before the second half of games.

From now on, teams that fail to return to the field for warm-ups three minutes prior to the start of the third quarter will be flagged.