HAWAI'I HOMEGROWN REPORT
Divine 29 at California college
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
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That probably should come as no surprise, as there are 29 players from Hawai'i on the Menlo roster, more than on any other college football team except for the University of Hawai'i, which has 57.
In Menlo's first game, junior wide receiver Russ Fukushima (Moanalua '00) scored on pass receptions of 6 and 24 yards and sophomore running back A.B. Eugenio (Baldwin '00) bolted four yards for the third TD.
Senior Duane Sherry (Pearl City '97), who starts in the defensive line and is a 275-pound terror on special teams, blocked a punt to set up Eugenio's touchdown. Freshman defensive back Keano Noa (Kamehameha '02) returned a pass interception for another touchdown, but it was nullified by a penalty.
Menlo's large and active Hawaiian Club had plenty to wave ti leaves about in the metal bleachers at its unimposing football field alongside El Camino Real in Atherton, 30 miles south of San Francisco.
During Hawai'i Homegrown Report's 12-year existence, the only time Menlo's number of Hawai'i players on the Mainland was matched was when Ron Lee brought 29 to Oregon Tech in 1991. (Oregon Tech dropped football in 1993, and Lee is now receivers coach at Hawai'i.)
"I understand how to go over there and recruit," says head coach Mark Ka'anapu, whose family left Hawai'i when he was in the sixth grade. "All my uncles and aunties are still in Kailua."
Ka'anapu understands ohana. "I personally go into the homes and meet the kids and let them know they are coming to be part of my family," he says.
Menlo's history of students from Hawai'i extends more than 50 years, long before the school was converted from a junior college to a four-year institution in 1986.
Entertainer Al "Tau" Harrington played junior college football at Menlo in 1954, before his three seasons at Stanford. Punahou grad Dave Guard founded the Kingston Trio there. James Pfleuger went to Menlo years before he sold his first Honda.
"Our professors have had so many local kids, they know pidgin and they know these kids are intelligent," Ka'anapu says. "The financial-aid packages meet the needs of kids from Hawai'i."
One facet of financial aid that has led to heavy attrition at Menlo (five football players from Hawai'i did not return this fall) has been fixed, Ka'anapu says.
Menlo costs $30,000 a year in tuition/room and board, but it gives generous grants to incoming freshmen with high grade-point averages. Until this year, if they did not maintain their high school GPA, they lost that grant. The rule has been revised, Ka'anapu says, so that a student can keep his academic grant if he maintains a 2.8 GPA at Menlo.
Ka'anapu is a thorough recruiter. "I went to all but two of the 44 football-playing high schools in the state this year to let them know who we are, what we are about and what we are trying to do," he says.
Menlo's 29 Hawai'i players come from 16 different high schools.
Menlo's football facilities are modest; the bleachers are smaller than most high school fields, but it has prominent fans. "Bill Walsh is at almost every game," Sherry says.
Menlo's No. 1 goal in football is to reach the 28-team NCAA Division III championship tournament. The Oaks seemed to be on that track last season until key injuries struck and they were derailed by Linfield. Menlo finished 8-2 and uninvited.
With players in the starting lineup such as senior Duane Miller (Wai'anae '99), who rushed for 657 yards last season in a pass-oriented offense, cornerback Mana Cambra (Kamehameha '98 of Kailua), defensive lineman Kalani Siliga (Hilo '01), running back Kainoa Rudolfo (Moanalua '01) and Fukushima, the Oaks' prospects stand tall, even though they lost to Division III power Hardin-Simmons, 42-34, in Texas Saturday.
