While most of his peers his age are watching football, Ron Marciel is still coaching it.

The 72-year-old is beginning his fifth stint in his fifth decade of high-school football coaching as the lead man at Honoka'a of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation. Marciel is one of eight new varsity coaches in the state this season. He succeeds Paul Purdy, whose contract was not renewed after four seasons.

"It's wonderful," Marciel said of returning as a head coach after 14 years. "The kids at Honoka'a are good people to work for. I'm excited and they're excited."

Marciel will try to turn around a program that was 3-6 last year and hasn't had a winning season since going 6-5 overall in 1999. Marciel said about 100 boys have turned out, half of them for varsity.

"We have an all-time high in turnout," he said.

Marciel said offseason training was well-attended and added there is enough depth that no one will need to play on both offense and defense.

"I think we're going to be very-well prepared," he said. "We're going to do some exciting things. We feel we have some good kids. They're really receptive."

This is Marciel's 16th season, making him the second-most tenured coach in the state behind Lahainaluna's Robert Watson, who enters his 17th season. Marciel coached at Saint Louis from 1965 to 1970 and again from 1973 to 1978, leading the Crusaders to Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships in 1966, 1967, 1970 (co-champ with Punahou) and 1973. He also coached at Kalani in 1988 and Hawai'i Prep in 1989 and 1990.

Although there are gaps in his head coaching career, Marciel hasn't been far from the game. He was an assistant at Kohala for coach Beldon Kealoha the last three years. Even after his two years as head coach at HPA, he hung around as an assistant for Ka Makani for six years.

Marciel moved from Honolulu to the Big Island in 1989 after his Kalani tenure. He works part-time at HPA, caring for the athletic facilities in the morning before heading off to Honoka'a.

Marciel's experience isn't limited to high school. Between stints at Saint Louis, he was an assistant to Dave Holmes at the University of Hawai'i in 1971 and 1972.

"The college game at the time was a tough situation for me because it put too much of a strain on my family," he said. "Family matters more, so fortunately, Saint Louis wanted me to come back, so I went back."

Meanwhile, former UH running back Danny Crowell (1984-1986) returns to his alma mater to replace Curtis Lee at Maui High. Lee, who resigned after 21 years, was the most-tenured active coach last season. Lee departed as the winningest coach in Maui Interscholastic League history at 130-69-7.

Crowell helped the Sabers with conditioning last year, but wasn't involved in the "X's and O's," he said. He has spent the last 10 years, the last six as head coach, for the semi pro Maui Stars team. He runs a business called Baby Me Inc., which supplies baby-related items to retail stores.

Crowell inherits a program that went 2-6 in the MIL last year, marking only the second time in 21 years under Lee that the Sabers finished under .500.

"I think skill-wise, we have a lot of talent," Crowell said. "We just lack linemen. But I think we're going to be competitive. We're going into it expecting to win. We'll see how it goes."

The high school football season gets under way the weekend of Aug. 19-20 with nonleague games.