Imagine sitting through a high school calculus class when you don't have to.

Not just one, but several, in succession, and 30 years after you had graduated.

But there, crunched down in a seat in a Y building classroom at Kahuku High, for hours on end, would be Oregon State football coach Mike Riley.

Want to know how the Beavers built their prosperous Hawai'i recruiting pipeline? Trying to understand how once-downtrodden OSU has managed four winning seasons in the past five years and regularly goes to bowls?

Look no further than the worn seats in the back of Siuaki Livai's math classes, where Riley would perch himself. During breaks and lunch hours, the man who came to be known around the corridors as "that tall haole guy," Riley would talk football with Livai, then the Red Raiders' head coach. Riley would wander the school grounds. He'd talk to people in the community, proselytizing on behalf of the Beavers.

He probably spent more time in Kahuku's math classes than he did in his own growing up in Corvallis, Ore., Riley acknowledges with a chuckle.

And has gotten more out of it, too. With 16 Hawai'i players, half of them from the North Shore, on the Beavers' current roster, the investment in time and effort has long since paid major dividends for Oregon State, which hosts Hawai'i Saturday.

While math was never his best of subjects, Riley admits, recruiting sure has been. On the North Shore, where Brigham Young and Utah once dominated, the Beavers have carved an enviable niche. It began with Mark Banker, a former UH assistant who is the Beavers' defensive coordinator, selling Riley on recruiting Hawai'i in general and Kahuku in particular.

For the Beavers to succeed, they couldn't expect to go into Los Angeles shoulder to shoulder with USC and UCLA or Seattle against Washington for upper-tier players year in and year out. But as Banker knew and Riley had come to understand from six years spent coaching a long line of Hawai'i products at Linfield (Ore.) College, the 50th State was a place that turned out good players and the Beavers could do well selling the Pac-10 brand, if only they could establish a toehold.

Kahuku would be that place and Riley underlined its importance by his continued presence. While some head coaches ventured to the North Shore only to close deals around signing time, Riley nearly took up residence. Or, at least as much as NCAA regulations would permit. "I just really liked it, the place, the people," Riley said. "It is a beautiful place."

And folks there, not unlike the Beavers' small, out-of-the-way home of Corvallis (population: 49,553), put a lot of stock in personal relationships. With Banker, Riley and, subsequently, Mike Cavanaugh and Joe Seumalo, the Beavers have painstakingly built ties and trust.

They have worked at maintaining it. Five of the coaches on Riley's staff have coached at UH or are from Hawai'i. Former Kamehameha Schools coach Kanani Souza spent time at OSU as a graduate assistant.

So tinged with Hawai'i are the Beavers that, we're told, they often have Local Boyz Hawaiian Cafe of Corvallis cater staff meetings. Every year they host a reception for OSU alums here.

Riley likes to joke that he could have made more of his time spent in Kahuku math classes by bringing a notebook and a textbook.

Too late to improve his grade-point-average, perhaps, but it was definitely not time wasted for the Beavers.

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