Hawai'i Homegrown Report
Lack of height didn't stop former Wai'anae athlete
| • | Ex-Kamehameha athlete makes switch for team |
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
There are places in college football for Hawai'i's vertically challenged offensive linemen, and Kika Kaululaau is proof of it, says his coach at Nevada.
University of Nevada
Kaululaau, a 1997 Wai'anae High graduate, was passed over by big-time programs despite a successful tour at Alan Hancock junior college in California because of his height: 6 feet even, said Steve Morton, Nevada's offensive line coach.
The Nevada football team voted former Wai'anae High student Kika Kaululaau one of its co-captains last month. The offensive lineman has succeeded despite being only 6 feet tall.
That's a barrier many offensive linemen from Hawai'i face at brand-name schools. When Morton was at the University of Washington, the Huskies checklist for prospective offensive linemen did not go below 6-5.
"Kika is a credit to high school football over there," Morton said. "There are a lot of kids who may not be 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5 who can still play the game. There are places for them."
At Nevada, a Western Athletic Conference member, Kaululaau, a senior, "was our most dominant offensive lineman two years in a row," Morton said. "His competitive spirit is as good as I've ever been around."
Besides seven years at Washington, Morton's 27-year coaching resume includes Southern California (two years), Iowa State (five years) and Washington State (12 years).
For his size, Morton says, Kaululaau "is as good a football player as I have coached. To do what he did with his abilities was incredible."
Although he weighed 329 pounds, Kaululaau "was very athletic," Morton said. "Any time we ran to the left, he was out front."
Kaululaau won the team's Big Hit award in 2000.
"He had a burning desire to be the best he could be," Morton said, and "he wanted to go against the best; no matter who we played, it didn't make any difference."
Kaululaau's coaches and teammates recognized those traits, giving him the team's Iron Man award "for toughness and consistent play" and electing him a season co-captain last month. He was chosen second-team All-WAC despite playing the last third of the season on a sprained ankle.
Kaululaau will come away from Reno with a bachelor's degree to launch his planned career in coaching and a new passion: He has become an avid snowboarder and even works at a ski resort.
Extra points: At Washington, Steve Morton coached another Hawai'i player who did not measure up to the height standard — first-round NFL draft choice Olin Kreutz, St. Louis School grad and current Chicago Bears starting center at 6-feet-2. ... Morton also coached 6-foot-3 offensive lineman Faaesea Mailo, a Kahuku High graduate, at Southern California. Mailo, a senior, has the talent to play professionally, Morton said.
