Posted on: Wednesday, October 2, 2002

St. Louis grad McKeague feels more at home

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

How does a big-city boy like Enoch McKeague of Honolulu react when he arrives at an isolated college in southwestern Montana to play football?

"It was my first time away from home," McKeague said yesterday of his trip to 4,000-population Dillon, Mont., in August 2001. "I was pretty close to packing it up. I was real lonely."

McKeague, an all-state defensive back for St. Louis School in 1999 and 2000, said he followed the recommendation of his high school coach, Cal Lee, to play for Lee's brother, Tommy, at Montana-Western.

"Coach (Tommy) Lee had a lot to offer," in financial aid, McKeague said.

Dillon is "really small ... tiny," McKeague said. "There ain't really nothing there ... just a movie theater and an eight-lane bowling alley.

"Coach Tommy and my parents are the reason I stayed," McKeague said. "He made me feel at home. He takes care of all of us. He checks up on us, invites us over for dinner. We relax and watch TV at coach Tommy's house."

There were only six players from Hawai'i last year, but 17 this year. "It's a lot better now with more guys," McKeague said. "It's practically Hawai'i now, just like home. ... The weather is cold, but other than that we do everything we do at home."

He said that the college serves dinner at 5, "but by 9 or 10 we're hungry again, so we cook rice and Spam."

Kawai Curnan, a 2002 St. Louis graduate, is the best cook, McKeague says. "He makes Hamburger Helper and Spam the best."

The entire Hawai'i contingent went to coach Lee's house to watch the St. Louis-De La Salle football game on cable TV, McKeague said. "He wasn't expecting us all to come. We crowded his house."

For relaxation, McKeague said, the players "eat and play ukulele."

"Or we try to borrow a car, go out of town and explore.

(Ikaika) Cabral and (Abraham) Apilado (both from Kaua'i) go fly fishing every chance they get."

The cold weather? "We handle the weather pretty good, we wear more clothes," McKeague says. But stay with their slippers, he added.