Kalani football

13TH IN A SERIES This summer, head coaches from all 28 Oahu high school varsity football teams are being asked to recount their football playing days. One coach interviewed for this multi-part series pointed out what he thinks may be the value of this endeavor: “A lot of times, you only hear about coaches when they’re getting released or are having a special season. It’s super hard to have a special season, so this should shed more light on them […]

Scott Melemai‘s Kalani Falcons took a step back in 2018, failing to win more than two games for the first time since 2010 under longtime mentor Greg Taguchi. The Falcons struggled mightily to put points on the board, averaging only 5.3 per game after raising that number to 26.3 last season. They were shut out six times, the most since the dark days of 2001, and it was the first time since 2007 the Falcons failed to average at least […]

Once Kalani mastered the first step in its offense, the Falcons soared to their first win of the season. The Falcons had been shut out in four of their first five games while being outscored 187-8, and Friday’s homecoming game against McKinley at Kaiser got off to another ominous start. On the game’s first play from scrimmage, a low snap skittered past Kalani quarterback Nicholas Sakamoto for an 18-yard loss back to the Falcons 6. Kalani’s second possession generated some […]

19TH IN A SERIES It’s something high school coaches have been going through since football was invented. The cycle. Every three or four years or so, you have a bunch of seniors and somehow the ship sails smoothly. And then, the seniors graduate and you find some rough seas. It appears that such is the case for the Kalani Falcons this year. They’ve dropped their first two games — 63-0 to ‘Iolani and 49-0 to Kaimuki. The second one is […]