The measurements aren’t always exact, but St. Francis football players have learned to make do.
"We don’t have a real field, so most times (our coaches) would have to judge off how far we have to run," senior linebacker Blayne Won said of his team’s practices at Manoa Valley District Park. "Lucky days we may get little bit shorter yards, but those unlucky days, you can expect to run 20 more yards than normal. … It probably keeps you in shape no matter what happens."
When the Saints go marching into the daunting realm of varsity football in a matter of days, there will be plenty of ground to cover and unforeseen challenges to overcome. Even as an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II team, St. Francis must contend with the old guard of the ILH — Division I powerhouses Kamehameha, Punahou and Saint Louis — and their sizable rosters and players. ‘Iolani has dominated ILH Division II football for years.
St. Francis’ fiery head of school, Sister Joan of Arc Souza, is determined to see the Manoa-based Catholic institution through one of the most significant expansions in its 89-year history, right up there with admitting boys for the first time in 2006.
"We knew eventually we were going to have football. I just didn’t expect it to arrive so quickly," said Souza, who added there was doubt on the ILH’s end that the Saints were ready after just a year of junior varsity and intermediate football. St. Francis’ JV team went 0-6 in 2012.
"I think they were a little ‘Wait a minute, this is too soon, too quick.’ But I’m not one who takes no very easily. My philosophy is that if God shuts one door, he opens another," she said.
It took $120,000 to get things up and running, the team estimated. That was the easy part; right now, dollars to buy their baby blue uniforms come more easily than bodies to fill them.
The Saints will have between 25 and 35 players to call upon this year, many of whom have no prior experience in football and haven’t tasted true contact — the pads go on for the first time on Monday. St. Francis scrimmages against Kalaheo on Thursday and again at Kailua on Saturday. The season opener looms against Maui High at War Memorial Stadium on Aug. 9.
Of its roughly 135 boys in high school, St. Francis has five seniors with varsity football experience (last year for Pac-Five). Won, who helped the Saints to their first boys state championship in Division II basketball last year, is one of them.
The man charged with shaping the Saints, Mike Ulufale, is in his first gig as a high school coach. But he knows what it takes to compete on a bare-bones roster; his Campbell Sabers in the 1980s played with numbers in the 20s. He eventually made it to BYU and the Dallas Cowboys as a tackle.
"We had to be definitely in condition and mentally we had to be strong both sides of the ball," recalled Ulufale, 41, who has youth coaching experience in the Pop Warner and Hawaii Big Boyz leagues. "Either you want to be out there or you don’t. If you’re a two-way player, and you’re not putting out, obviously we’ll take you out. Some of these guys, they’re playing big roles both ways for us, they want to be there. So I feel like I’m OK with it, because they’re showing no signs of weakness and mentally they’re tough. They can do it."
His ideal roster size is 45, which would still pale in comparison to the state’s biggest programs. At most positions, the Saints will also be smaller than their foes. Game management — timeouts and substitutions, especially late in the game — will be key.
"We have only 25, 30 kids and you look at the other side and it’s about 80," defensive coordinator Rick Saunders said. "But I tell these kids, I don’t care how many you have on that side. You can only put 11 people on the field. So it’s going to be our best 11 against their best 11. The kids that we have, I’m so confident in them that they’ll be successful."
Blaze Umiamaka, a junior, is tabbed as the starting quarterback to run the team’s zone-read offense, with running back Ranan Mamiya next to him in the backfield.
"It takes a lot of work, and as long as we put in the work I think we should be fine," Mamiya said.
Getting off the ground — and staying there — is not easy in the ILH. The last private school to start up its own football team? That would be the now-defunct Word of Life Academy, which played two varsity seasons — 2008 and 2009 — and went 3-20 before the school folded. The last ILH team to emerge before that was the precursor to Pac-Five in 1973.
Former Word of Life coach Joe Onosai is excited for St. Francis. He can directly relate to the perils and pride of leading an undermanned underdog against the big boys.
Onosai estimated he had an average of 28 players to work with, a comparable size to the Saints.
"There was always that challenge because out of 30 players, there were maybe half of them that probably belonged there," he said. "The other half were out (there) because they were excited about school and the team. … When you don’t have the numbers, they don’t get to compete because you got a big drop-off from the starters to the backups. So it was always a tough thing to manage. But I think with St. Francis, they got some good athletes and they proved last year with their intermediate and JV that they could compete."
Ulufale said he never expects to be blown out, but should that happen, he and his assistant coaches will shoulder the blame. And no matter what happens in the regular season, St. Francis will be seeded in the new ILH playoff with a chance to make the Division II state tournament.
Won knows he and his fellow seniors have one year to leave a lasting impact.
"What I want to do before I leave school is make sure (people) know who St. Francis is, and make sure they respect us," he said. "Because we’re the new kids on the block right now. We need to make sure we put a name out for ourselves."
