Posted on: Wednesday, June 11, 2003

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When Saint Louis School hired Cal Lee as football coach in 1981, a published announcement was deemed worthy of three paragraphs on the back pages.

Now, mere speculation as to the identity of the next Crusaders coach has amounted to 10 times that — amid dozens more hot Internet rumors. Proud Saint Louis alums and bitter Crusader-haters alike are watching closely.

Shows you what 16 state and/or Prep Bowl championships can do.

Curiously, however, the state's most visible high school coaching position sits open after more than six weeks and we're told there might not be an honest-to-goodness announcement of a replacement for a while.

And it's not because officials have been overwhelmed by an avalanche of applicants. The official word is that "more than a dozen" have applied for the job. Not bad at some schools, but this is, after all, Saint Louis, where they get more college recruiters than that in some weeks.

Indeed, given Saint Louis' tradition, a lot of people expected the line of candidates to stretch halfway up Kalaepohaku. With a state-of-the-art $900,000 practice field and talent still on the shelves, where's the traffic jam on Wai'alae Avenue?

Especially since Delbert Tengan's resignation in April hardly came as a surprise. Speculation started by the time the state championship trophy was awarded.

The funny thing is that we've heard for years all the mutterings about how Lee had the program to the point where all anybody had to do was roll out the footballs and then sit back and pick up trophies.

How many times has somebody called Saint Louis a "football factory" or suggested its quarterbacks rolled off a production line like so many Hondas? How often has somebody said, "well give me Saint Louis and I'd win the (fill in the blank: Interscholastic League of Honolulu, Prep Bowl or state championships), too."

For some would-be candidates there are undoubtedly legitimate questions about leaving the state Department of Education and its hard-earned benefits. For others there may be the necessity of tying in a staff or faculty position at Saint Louis. And, there are always concerns about the depth of an administration's commitment.

But it isn't hard to see something else also looming over this opening. The shadow of Lee and all he has accomplished is large and unmistakable. The shoes he leaves might as well be Shaq-sized.

Those 241 wins against 32 losses and 5 ties — and all the hardware they brought — aren't going anywhere soon. And neither are the expectations that surround them.