LIHUE — The Kauai Interscholastic Federation will host its first two preseason football games this weekend — a single game Friday when Kalaheo High School comes to play the Kauai High School, and a single game Saturday when Lahainalunha of the Maui Interscholastic League comes to visit Kapaa High School.
Both games start at 7 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium.
“Yes, it’s football season, again,” said an excited spectator to the Rep 50 sports camp that unfolded Sunday afternoon at Isenberg Park where more than 30 aspiring football players from Grade 5 through 12 assembled, including a smathering of players from Kapaa High School, and a bit more from Kauai High School where former University of Hawaii football player and coach Mel Purcell joined the ranks of coaches.
The remainder stemmed from ranks of the Kauai Youth Football league, the Kauai Pop Warner Football League, and some from the recent Kauai Police Activities League flag football program.
“Whether we have one, or one hundred, we give 100 percent,” said Vince Mene of Rep 50. “I stuck to the structure of the camps for these young people who came out.”
Mene joined the coaching forces on the field that included St. Louis School quarterbacks coach Vinnie Passas, and National Football League players Samson Satele and Isaac Sopoaga, both former University of Hawaii players.
“I’ve been doing this for more than 40 years,” Passas said. “Kauai has had some good boys coming through St. Louis — not just in football, but other sports, too.”
Players in the soft practice, or no pads, were broken down into their specialty fields or line, and got appropriate coaching.
“We’re teaching skill sets,” Mene said. “We’re not competing with the coaches. They still call the shots on whether you play or not. But when you leave, you’ll have skills that you can use when you’re on the field. You still need to prove that coach can put you in — you’ll just have a little more in your bag that you can dig into.”
Rep 50 is a program focused on athletic development, primarily for student-athletes participating in football, with the objective of creating platforms for recruiting purposes. The name Rep 50 means “Represent the 50th State” and is a motivational statement aimed at the national media with the intent of raising respect and rankings for Hawaii’s youth.
“Next year, we’re going padded with mainland coaches,” Mene said.
