When working with Dayton Furuta, Mililani football coach Rod York can often give his motivational skills a rest. If anything, York’s strongest admonitions of the Trojans’ senior linebacker/running back center on trying to get Furuta to give himself a break.
"We have to tell him to rest," York said. "He works out before anyone’s awake, then goes to school, goes to practice, then he’s lifting at home and comes back and does our workout. We have to tell him to take time out."
A three-sport athlete and two-way player for the football team, Furuta doesn’t get much downtime. Once kickoff arrives, he’s a focal point of the Mililani defense as the Trojans’ middle linebacker, then contributes offensively as a punishing ballcarrier.
Whether running alone in the cool of morning or grinding through team conditioning sessions on sweltering summer afternoons, thoughts of the fourth quarter keep his legs churning in preparation for the workload awaiting on game nights.
"After the first two months or so we started running to strengthen our minds, so when you’re tired in those late quarters you know how to push through adversity and you don’t give up," Furuta said of the Trojans’ offseason regimen.
When the fall wraps up, he’ll carry his training over into wrestling in the winter, then judo in the spring, and he’ll enter both of those seasons as the reigning OIA champion in his weight class.
But for now his focus is squarely on football.
His performances on both sides of the ball last year earned him second-team All-State honors as a utility player as the Trojans won the OIA Red West and advanced to the Division I state tournament semifinals.
He opened his senior season by posting 14 tackles and rushing for 29 yards on six carries in Mililani’s 39-9 win over Moanalua last Friday. The Trojans, ranked fourth in this week’s Star-Advertiser poll, have a short week to prepare for an interleague game against No. 2 Punahou in their home opener on Thursday, with another challenging league schedule to follow.
"There’s never a week we can take off and say, ‘This team isn’t that great.’ In the Red West, every team has a shot to win. Every week we need to prepare to the best of our ability," said Furuta, who honed his work ethic as a youngster while training in kickboxing and mixed martial arts with his father, Dayne.
"We try to think of it as every week is a new week. Every week we still need to prove ourselves."
Furuta proved himself as a linebacker and leader with the junior varsity his freshman year, and earned a spot on the varsity team and a role as one of the defense’s captains as a sophomore.
"He’s like a coach in a uniform," York said. "He motivates the players, gets them going, gets on guys when he feels like they’re not hustling. He challenges guys in practice and it’s all in a good, positive way."
Furuta asked York for a chance to run the ball prior to his junior season and scored 16 touchdowns over 13 games last fall. He reached the end zone in all but two games even though the running game played a supporting role to the Trojans’ passing attack.
On one of the occasions when York opted to highlight the run, Furuta rushed for a season-high 118 yards on 23 carries and scored twice in a win over Baldwin in the first round of the state tournament.
"We give him the ball and sometimes he makes his own holes," York said.
The Trojans plan to put more emphasis on the ground game this fall and Furuta, listed at 6 feet and 220 pounds, again figures to play a prominent part in the backfield, whether running the ball or blocking for sophomore Vavae Malepeai and junior Pakelo Lee.
But linebacker — a position he’s played since signing up with the Waipio Panthers at age 5 — remains where he’s most at home. He teams with fellow senior Jacob Afele as a playmaking duo behind the Trojans’ solid defensive front.
"You watch the way he plays, every time he hits he gets more excited," York said. "He’s a beast, but he’s also a gentle giant on campus."
Just as Furuta can impact a game on either side of the ball, his family had a strong influence on the team’s look this season. His mother, Li‘i, is a graphic designer with her own printing company — Island Athletes Hawaii — and redesigned the team’s helmets this season, introducing a new take on the Trojans logo on one side with each player’s number on the other.
"(The Trojans) wanted something new," Furuta said. "We’re trying to start a new legacy and leave our own mark on this campus."
