Syracuse will receive a letter of intent covered by the tears of Austyn Kauhi’s mother.
The 6-foot-5, 275-pound senior signed his letter on Wednesday morning with roughly a dozen family members gathered at the home of his grandmother, Rayne Kauhi. The offensive lineman was one of two Kamehameha standouts to sign. Former kindergarten classmate Kuao Peihopa, a two-way lineman, signed with Washington.
“My mom (Shantel) was crying and then she wet the papers while she signed them,” Kauhi said. “My dad (Alexander) is excited, too. Everybody’s excited.”
With letters of intent becoming official starting at noon on Wednesday, several island student-athletes were up early and signed at 7 a.m., Hawaii time. The early signing day is relatively new for football. The next football LOI day is in early February.
Kauhi had 11 scholarship offers. Navy and Hawaii offered early on, then came Syracuse, which has former Hawaii standout Dino Babers as head coach and former UH offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh as an assistant coach. Cavanaugh’s son, Blair, is also on staff and made the initial contact with Kauhi.
Unlike a few other seniors, Kauhi has no intention of graduating early to enroll in college in a month.
“I want to finish what I started, complete my senior year, 13 years on the hill,” he said.
Kauhi thanked his coaches.
“Shout out to my O-line coach Nate Nam. He’s helped me to become an O-lineman. He taught me everything I know about O-line. Shout out to Coach Chev Lamoya. He’s my trainer,” Kauhi said. “And shout out to my mom and our family.”
UNLV scored with two signees: Kailua quarterback Cameron Friel and Punahou defensive back Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen. Friel has six offers and committed to UNLV on May 18. The 6-4, 215-pound senior will graduate early and enroll at college next month. He will bypass his senior season, which was postponed last fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 50th state’s shortened football season is tentatively slated for February.
“I feel excited. I can’t wait to go to work. I leave the day after the Polynesian Bowl, Jan. 24,” he said.
Mendiola-Jensen, 6-2, 160-pound playmaker, has also been invited to play in the Poly Bowl.
“Hopefully, we still have a game. I want to play in that game, especially, and hopefully we get a regular season,” he said.
Once the letters were signed, they joined an online conference call with the UNLV coaching staff.
“We got on FaceTime with the offensive coordinator, the quarterbacks coach, the head coach and they showed everybody in the room,” Friel said. “It was a big room, I think in the cafeteria in the athletic complex. Once we told them we were official, they started blowing the air horns.”
Mendiola-Jensen turned down 15 other offers, including Arizona and a number of FCS programs. He has done all his school work through distance learning, but will be on Punahou’s campus when spring semester arrives.
“For me, personally, I’ve been working out all the time and we wear masks. That’s the main thing: be smart, space out. You never know who could have (coronavirus). Have to take every precaution,” he said.
Before noon Wednesday, Saint Louis offensive lineman Kalan Ellis signed his letter of intent to Syracuse.
“I feel great. I’m going to be the first on my mom’s side to go to college and get a scholarship. It’s my first time going to the East Coast to play ball,” Ellis said before a signing ceremony at the new Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center.
The 6-5, 295-pound senior has a 3.6 grade-point average. In addition to Hawaii and Syracuse, Ellis also had offers from Virginia, UCLA and San Diego State. As a freshman, he sat out after transferring to Saint Louis. He was a reserve as a sophomore and saw more playing time as a junior. Once UH offered, radar screens across the country detected him.
He committed to Syracuse on July 23, taking an early track much like Kauhi.
“It’s probably because of we bonded so well to the coaches. Two coaches are from Hawaii. One played and one coached, and we developed a relationship that was good. I guess we both liked it,” Ellis said.
