The universe of high school football and the universe of club football never intersected in this way before.
No matter. Ron Lee is glad his Saint Louis Crusaders got to scrimmage the Mill Vill Trojans not just once, but twice over the past two weekends.
The Trojans, who have flag football youth teams and middle-school age-level squads, are part of JPS Oahu’s foray into high school divisions this fall. The timing worked out well with Saint Louis, which has scrimmages and games with Punahou and Kamehameha in the coming weeks.
When Kamehameha opted out of a scrimmage with Saint Louis due to safety and protocols, Mill Vill filled in. The second scrimmage was played on Saturday morning.
“I’m just happy the kids can play,” Lee said on Sunday. “We’re letting some of the seniors play and trying to look at the young guys, and install our stuff.”
Saint Louis played all four quarterbacks in the two scrimmages, from senior Connor Apo to junior AJ Bianco to sophomore Kekahi Graham to freshman ‘Oa Kamakawiwo‘ole.
Lee also rotated his 22 receivers, playing a total of “80-something guys,” Lee said. When the 2020-21 football season was canceled due to the pandemic, first-time starters like Keanu Wallace missed a chance to finally get on the field consistently.
“Keanu ran a 10.5 or 10.6 hand-timed 100 (meter) dash on Saturday at ‘Iolani,” Lee said of an ILH track and field meet. “Electronic time was around 10.8. That’s pretty good at this time of year. Keanu’s one of the guys I feel sorry for, (but) he got accepted to Washington’s engineering school. Hopefully, he gets a chance to walk on.”
Another player getting valuable reps is defensive lineman Anthony Sagapolutele. The athletic playmaker in the trenches sat out a year after his father died. He was slated to graduate in 2020, but remained in school and is finishing in ’21. He was ineligible to play in official games, but has kept working out and is playing in this exhibition battles.
Mill Vill, coached by Rod York, left Kalaepohaku and went to Aloha Stadium for a JPS preseason game with Waipahu at 1 p.m. There, the Trojans blanked Waipahu, 42-0.
“I was very impressed with (Mill Vill’s) improvement on both sides of the ball. We had a hard time offensively moving the ball. They moved the ball well on our defense. The positive stuff is that we got to look at our young guys, and Rod does a good job with the offense,” Lee said. “Their coaches did a good job.”
Saint Louis will complete its exhibition football slate by May 6.
“This is really our spring ball. After this, we take a little break until we find out when we can go again,” Lee said.
JPS Oahu will begin its high school division regular season this weekend. Most game are scheduled at Aloha Stadium, though no spectators are allowed.
“That’s what’s so sad,” Lee added. “You have these clubs — football, volleyball and other sports — yet in the high schools, you cannot have some of them. It doesn’t make sense.”
Lee has been outspoken about what he views as a lack of progress for high school football returning.
“A lot of people are not happy with me talking about public schools, but somebody’s got to take charge. I cannot. Somebody’s got to be doing something, and nobody’s pushing,” he said. “If they don’t, exactly what’s going to happen is what already happened this year.”
Many coaches have expressed concern that student-athletes will transfer to mainland schools. For Lee, that means the annual pass league is a litmus test of sorts.
“We’re already close to May. What’s going to happen with school kids now? It’s hard to round up kids. Somebody’s got to make a decision,” he said. “August is the first week of the season so let’s make a plan. What’s going to happen if they don’t come up with a plan soon, kids are going to transfer. The mainland will play — from what I understand, we’re one of only three states that didn’t play football — and more people will be leaving,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, the club scene is bursting. In addition to the Mill Vill-Waipahu game, Trench Dawgz and MBC Athletics played in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader at the stadium. MBC eked out a 14-13 win in a physical, dramatic battle.
Trench Dawgz, coached by Whitley Fehoko, will travel to Nevada to play the Sin City Legendz next week. In May, MBC will trek to Seattle for two games.
“Hat’s off to Trench Dawgz, Coach Whit and their staff. Those guys are always competitive, always a tough game, always a physical game and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” MBC coach Mose Tuia said. “Safe travels to them as they travel to Vegas.”
Two playmakers at quarterback for MBC are Mike Higa, who ran for a touchdown and passed for another, and a familiar name to local fans. Tuli Tagovailoa is a freshman who played half the snaps at QB for MBC.
