Kay Bicoy and Kelcie Yomen met by chance at a wedding a few years ago. And as members of competing halau, they’d often seen each other at Polynesian dance events.
But they had no idea they’d be working together now, as strength and conditioning coaches for the Pearl City High School football teams as the Chargers prepare for the upcoming season.
Many women are physical education teachers, like Bicoy, and personal trainers, like Yomen. But it is not very common for them to train entire football teams — especially two with one program.
First-year Chargers varsity coach Robin Kami didn’t set out to break gender barriers while forming his staff. It just sort of happened this way, and he’s glad it did.
Bicoy, 63, has been a teacher at the school since 1971. She has experience in weight-training football players through working with her husband, Mel Bicoy, who was the Chargers’ coach from 2006 to 2008.
"Mrs. Bicoy approached me and asked if her and her husband could help us. I said yes, I would love to have them. It’s good to have teachers," Kami said.
Mel Bicoy’s involvement is limited, but Kami soon found Yomen through an assistant coach.
Yomen is a 24-year-old Kauai High School graduate who works out of BJ Penn’s UFC Gym in Kakaako. She also has previous experience training football players, at her alma mater and Kapaa High.
Some players were skeptical.
"It was hard to take in at first, the idea of being trained by females in weightlifting," junior defensive end Kyle Mano said. "But after we listened to them and understood they knew what they were doing it was easier to trust them. I’ve noticed an increase in all my maxes. Their training is intense."
Yomen, who is barely 5 feet tall, said she knew she had to earn the players’ respect.
"At first I think they were confused. I threw them for a little loop. At first they thought I was a fighter," she said. "Then it was, ‘Look at this little local girl, what’s she gonna teach me?’ "
It didn’t take long.
"We saw her lifting more than some of the guys, and a wide range of lifts," junior offensive lineman Kordell Va‘a said. "After a while you don’t think of her as a girl. She’s a trainer, that’s her job, and she’s good at it."
Like all good strength coaches, they stress discipline.
"When guys don’t work out or won’t lift, (Yomen) makes them run," Va‘a said.
Added senior linebacker Blake Cooper: "They yell at us. They push us to our limits."
Bicoy has been at Pearl City longer than the football stadium and the school library. She was there before Kami, who played football for the Chargers in the early 1980s.
And she graduated from Waipahu High School and the University of Hawaii before Title IX.
"I was a gym rat that grew up playing sports with the boys at Highlands," Bicoy said. "I had no idea of going to college, but (longtime Pearl City athletic director) Bino Neves pushed me. Now after all these years I bleed purple."
The players sense that, Kami said.
"Because she’s a teacher they respect her," he said. "They both communicate very well. The good thing about it is they demonstrate the drill. When a female does it (the players) think if they can do it, we can do it."
Senior safety Kristian Va‘ana-Kikuyama believes the tough training now will translate into wins during the season.
"They’re like family. Aunties, moms, grandmas, but they know what they’re doing," he said. "(Bicoy has) been doing it longer than we’ve been alive. We’re learning."
The women deflect praise to each other.
"She likes to say she learns everything from me," Yomen said. "But everything’s the same from when she learned. For me, she’s the foundation."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.
