Kahuku foe Long Beach exploding with strength

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Long Beach (Calif.) Polytechnic High School's modest football field sits humbly alongside Martin Luther King Boulevard, with no lights and a single concrete bleacher section that seats maybe 600.

It also was where former University of Hawai'i greats Michael Carter, Mark Odom and Chris Roscoe first made headlines as stars for the Jackrabbits.

Long Beach Poly (1-0) is still making headlines, this time as the nation's No. 3-ranked team in USA Today's Super 25 and Student Sports Inc.'s Fab 50. The Jackrabbits play Kahuku (3-0) Saturday in the opener of the HHSAA/First Hawaiian Bank Football Classic doubleheader at Aloha Stadium.

"Year-in, year-out, they have the talent," said UH defensive back Kelvin Millhouse, who played against Long Beach Poly during his high school days at nearby Mater Dei (Santa Ana). "They have great team speed — when we played them, they had the top 400-meter relay team in Southern California and their guys won the (individual) 100 and 200. And when those kind of guys graduate, they just reload with other athletes."

Indeed, the talent still oozes into and out of Long Beach Poly's campus. On July 30, the Jackrabbits held their preseason "testing," in which each player was timed in the 40-yard dash and had their lifts recorded in the bench press, squat and power clean.

Those results alone would make most opposing coaches squirm.

All four starting receivers run the 40 in under 4.5 seconds. All of the starting offensive linemen bench press at least 315 pounds and are in the "1,000-pound club" (combined bench press, squat and clean).

Offensive coordinator Merle Cole estimates that as many as 14 of this year's seniors will receive NCAA Division I or I-AA scholarship offers. Last year's team had six players receive Division I scholarships, and Long Beach Poly has 20 of its graduates currently playing in Division I, including eight at Southern California, two at UCLA and one each at Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford.

This year's top prospect is offensive lineman Kevin Brown, who is 6 feet 2, 300 pounds. Brown bench presses 385 pounds, power cleans 235 and runs the 40 in 5.1 seconds. He has received interest from Florida State, Michigan and the entire Pac-10 Conference.

Right next to Brown is defensive end Junior Lemau'u, a 6-5, 250-pound senior. At the NorCal Nike Camp last summer, Lemau'u opened eyes by doing 36 bench press repetitions of 225 pounds and had a vertical jump of 30 inches.

Free safety Freddie Parish (6-1, 195) has drawn interest from the entire Pac-10 except California, plus Notre Dame, Colorado, Michigan and Nebraska.

The list of prospects goes on and on.

"They're big, and they're fast," Kahuku coach Siuaki Livai said. "Sometimes, it's better not to watch them on film."

Two of this year's key seniors, quarterback Leon Jackson and running back Lorenzo Bursey, are transfers from Beverly Hills. Jackson, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound left-hander who transferred last year, runs the 40 in 4.58 seconds and is receiving interest from Washington State and Kansas.

The Jackrabbits' receiving corps is so fast, senior Alex Watson (5-10, 170) is considered a "possession" receiver even though he runs the 40 in 4.47 seconds. Watson also benches 255 pounds and squats 500.

Cole, however, is most pleased about his offensive line.

"That's the strength of our team," Cole said. "They're a lot stronger than last year."

As much talent as Long Beach Poly has, the Jackrabbits say they are not taking Kahuku lightly. They watched a tape of last year's Kahuku-St. Louis state championship game and are aware that the Red Raiders had just as many Division I recruits last year (six) as Long Beach Poly did.

"They look pretty good," Cole said of Kahuku. "They come right at you. It's gonna be a physical game."

Said Watson: "It's one of the biggest games of our careers. They're going to have a lot of fans, and we expect the crowd to be energized."

And Brown insists the Jackrabbits will not be caught looking ahead to an Oct. 12 showdown against No. 1-ranked De La Salle. Long Beach Poly, ranked No. 1 at the time, lost to No. 2 De La Salle, 29-15, last season.

It was the Jackrabbits' only loss, and they rebounded to win their third straight championship in the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section Division I, considered the state's toughest.

"(Kahuku) looks like a pretty good team," Brown said. "And we're trying for a national championship, so we can't lose to anybody. But we're more focused this year. We have business to take care of."

EXTRA POINTS: Long Beach Poly's slogan is "Home of Scholars and Athletes." Jackrabbits coach Raul Lara said last year's senior class was awarded more than $2 million in scholarships, and 60 percent of those were for academics. "We had the highest acceptance of students to (University of California system) schools in the state," said Lara, himself a Poly graduate. "We try to uphold that with athletics, and we really push character development. The image of your school and how you represent your family — we tell the players that's what they need to worry about. Football is just another tool for that." ... Other Long Beach Poly alumni include baseball legend Tony Gwynn, tennis great Billy Jean King, recent UH basketball standout Mike McIntyre and actress Cameron Diaz.