Posted on: Saturday, February 5, 2005

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

To hear University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones tell it, Kahuku High coach Siuaki Livai is Dr. Evil incarnate, sabotaging the Warriors' recruiting by steering his players away from UH.

To hear Livai's take in response, Jones is a bumbling recruiter who couldn't find Kahuku with a global positioning satellite and a full tank of gas.

Is, too.

Am not.

The sad part is that this whole spitting match — which has gone on behind the scenes for a while before bursting into public this week — honors neither party or the players caught in the middle. Which is why, you'd think, two of the state's most visible football entities should be able to sit down halfway in, say Mililani or Kane'ohe, and hash this out.

Recruiting frustrations at UH are nothing new, of course. Next to butting their heads against the state bureaucracy, the difficulty in keeping home certain segments of local football prospects, notably those from the private schools and North Shore, have been the biggest headache shared across decades of UH head coaches.

In the 1980s, Bob Wagner dubbed the North Shore "Guantanamo Bay" so exasperated was he by the allegiances to Brigham Young and Utah existing there. Former UH players tell of the pride of being able to walk into church there the morning after a victory over BYU. And, the pain of showing up after a loss. It is what helped make UH-BYU the rivalry it was.

You could write a sociology thesis on all that comes into play in that equation: the religious, cultural, community and other factors.

But the same frustrations UH has found there have been claimed about any number of Interscholastic League of Honolulu schools, too. Wagner had a name for that: "the missionary influence." Jones has also been upset about some of those same ILH schools, he just hasn't vented them in front of a statewide audience.

By the same token, Kahuku isn't the only one to claim UH comes in late and Jones is perceived as a disinterested, infrequent presence in on-campus recruiting.

Just as recruiters know it is wise to praise mom's meatloaf and pat the dog during home visits, so, too, do they recognize the importance of "showing face" on campus.

High schools like to feel special about the players they groom, especially in a proud, close-knit community such as Kahuku. Part of that is the respect that a name coach confers by stopping by to chat. When a Norm Chow, Tyrone Willingham, Jones, etc., come on campus, it is a prized sign of validation. And, woe be the head coach who doesn't deign to put in an appearance.

For Jones and Livai, there is so much for both parties to gain and so little that should be keeping them apart, common sense says it is time to find a way around this impasse.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.