UH opens North Shore pipeline
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Football recruiting success along O'ahu's North Shore was so elusive for so long for the University of Hawai'i that, in frustration, then-head coach Bob Wagner once dubbed the area "Guantanamo Bay."
The assertion was that while it was geographically part of Hawai'i, the college football allegiances there were often solidly with rivals Brigham Young or Utah.
Now, not much more than a decade later, a remarkable turnaround of fortunes could be in the works with the Warriors poised to sign seven prospects with Kahuku High ties on national letter of intent day.
If all the oral commitments translate into signatures tomorrow, the first day that high school players can make binding agreements, a third of the UH recruiting class will have come from the North Shore, including Viliami Nauahi, the prize in a significant tug-of-war between the Warriors and BYU.
So stunning has been the prospect of such a turnaround that Wagner, who is athletic director for Kamehameha Schools on the Big Island, offered congratulations to UH assistant coach Rich Miano, Dan Morrison and the Warriors' staff.
Not until Ken Niumatalolo, a former UH quarterback from the area, began recruiting for the Warriors in the 1990s, "did we even get the door open a crack," Wagner said. "Now, it looks like they're opening it wide. For several years when Dick (Tomey) and the staff tried to recruit out there, we'd be lucky to get one player," Wagner said.
Rarely would that player be like Nauahi, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound all-state safety, who is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and somebody widely coveted.
Players who were planning LDS missions rarely signed with UH. Prospects who got the full-court press from BYU or Utah hardly ever found their way to Manoa and their absences held the Warriors back.
Just as the hike in the number of Saint Louis School players has helped raise the Warriors' fortunes in recent years, so, too, is the influx of Red Raiders beginning to be felt in the win column. Indeed, the arrival of Nauahi at UH would be more than a symbolic triumph for the Warriors who could, with the addition of Nauahi, have a defensive secondary that could feature three former Kahuku stars, including Hyrum Peters and Leonard Peters (no relation).
This success hasn't gone unnoticed — or unchallenged. It is a mark of the importance that BYU and Utah have attached to retaining what has been called their "North Shore Pipeline" that when they hired new coaches, both pledged to get personally involved there.
With a little luck and a lot of hard work, though, UH might be about to turn "Guantanamo Bay" into Treasure Island.
