Bishop Gorman is not coming to Aloha Stadium for an Aug. 31 game against Saint Louis, Gaels coach Kenny Sanchez told Hawaii Prep World on Monday.
“That doesn’t sit well with me,” Crusaders coach Cal Lee said Monday. “But I can’t blame the head coach. I was taking Chris Brown’s word for it.”
Brown, a former All-WAC player for Hawaii and now an assistant at Bishop Gorman, did not immediately return a Monday call.
For a Feb. 13 Hawaii Prep World story, Lee said Bishop Gorman, a national power, agreed to the Aug. 31 game and that he was working on the details with Brown.
Lee said he went ahead and reserved Aloha Stadium for the game.
Sanchez, on Monday, said there was never an agreement. The Gaels are scheduled to visit Centennial (Peoria, Ariz.) for an Aug. 31 game.
“Chris called (Lee) to see if they had an open date,” Sanchez said. “That is pretty standard. We ask a lot of schools if they have open dates. If we determined that we wanted to go, we would have gotten back to him. But that conversation did not happen. It turns out we couldn’t afford to go.”
Lee said he got a call from Sanchez soon after the Feb. 13 Hawaii Prep World story.
“He told me then that he had a game against Centennial on Aug. 31, but that he was going to see what he could do to get out of it,” Lee said. “I called Chris at that time and he assured me that it (getting out of the Centennial game) was just a formality. He was adamant that we could work it out and I was relieved.”
Under Kenny Sanchez, Bishop Gorman won national high school championships in 2015 and 2016. The Gaels also won a national title under Tony Sanchez in 2014.
Mater Dei snapped Bishop Gorman’s 55-game winning streak on the way to a national title in 2017. The Gaels finished 13-2 and won the Nevada 4A state championship.
Saint Louis finished 10-0 last year and won the Hawaii Open Division state final, 31-28 over Kahuku. The Crusaders have won their last 15 games overall.
Saint Louis last played Bishop Gorman in 2012, losing 52-40 at Aloha Stadium.
Coach Cal jumped the gun. He shouldn’t have gone to the media too quickly. If he would’ve waited until Gorman got out of the other game it most certainly would have happened. Instead, he rushed to the media, and everyone including Centennial found out about it. It would have made Gorman look bad to back out of the Centennial game (like a two-timing husband) so to save face they were forced to honor the game in Arizona. Kinda like a side-chick that posts photos of her relationship with a married man before he can get the divorce.
Maybe they should call Mater Dei, last year’s HS No. 1 team in the nation. Or maybe Timpview or Skyline.
Too bad. Would’ve been a pretty good game I think.
702 – He jumped the gun so that media could run the story and get the hype going about STL “going places” in regard to playing top notch competition. This tactic is more about being a politician then a coach. Cant blame him, he is just doing what he been doing since the 80’s, pleasing the boosters/alumni of STL to keep their endowment of top football talent going strong.
..and like a true politician, he is throwing Chris Brown and Kenny Sanchez under the bus even though he is the one that botched the whole thing. This guy should run for governor.
Coach Lee was just trying to set this up. We live 2K miles away and its a logistics nightmare. He cant do this last minute.
Well I am an 808 native… born and raised but live in the 702 for 12 Years now. This “702” commentor, is trying to act as if they know it all about Gorman. Let’s take a moment to laugh 😂 it probably lived in 702 for about 8 years and all of a sudden on Gormans train. C’mon man lol. Anyhow , the real truth is… since the biggest money support has moved back to HI bc his last son graduated from BG, the recruiter HS players don’t have that tuition paid in full now so no one like go to Gorman. Gormans cupboards are BARE now and is desperately looking for HI pipeline and that’s where brown comes in. Watch this coming season, other schools will shock the world bc Gorman not gonna be competitive. Oh well, life goes on. Stop drinking the BG koolaid. Stay where you at!!!
It might be too late for BG to raise money and make travel plans for this year, but why don’t the two schools agree to start planning for a game in 2019? BG can start fundraising now and that gives them more than a year to plan it. Or does that make too much sense?
Bishop Gorman is Manuk !
Who needs fundraising, BG got Fertitta?
Always funny to see the butthurt crusader haters on these posts.
Dam, coach cal. You gotta go mainland to play the big dawgs. I mean, why pay $$$ to come to Hawaii then possibly lose?