All the things that the Bishop Gorman Gaels have achieved on the football field are straight out of an American novella.
The long hours in desert heat. The sweat equity, investing rep after rep in the weight room. The academic pressures of attending a college preparatory school. The deep pockets of longtime supporters who helped upgrade facilities, and now relish seeing all these aspects come together, building the nation’s No. 1 high school football program.
Kenny Sanchez oversees it all. Now in his second year as head coach, following in the footsteps of older brother and current UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez, the younger Sanchez has steered the Gaels (3-0) to the top of the nation, a consensus No. 1. They beat Cedar Hill, the top team in Texas, on the road, 44-14, two weekends ago. That prompted another Texas high school coach, who is also in charge of the state’s football coaches association, to pen a letter of criticism.
Sanchez responded with disappointment in the letter, but has since moved on. The Gaels were busy last week rallying past another elite program, St. John Bosco (Calif.), 35-20. The coach was kind enough to return a call to Hawaii Prep World on Tuesday morning, just minutes before practice.
Hawaii Prep World: Thank you for your time, Coach. Everything the Bishop Gorman program has accomplished on a national scale, traveling across state boundaries for games, it’s almost crazy good, isn’t it?
Sanchez: I don’t look at it as crazy. When you’re engulfed and on the front stage, you don’t have much time to think about what’s going on. It’s fun, for sure. When we look back at where we’ve been and who we’ve played, we’ll remember it was exciting. Right now, during the season, you get excited after the games on Fridays or Saturdays, then it’s back to work on Monday. Kahuku is our fourth (nationally) ranked team in four weeks. Most people who are grinders don’t think about what’s going on until maybe 20 years down the road.
HPW: Kahuku is as old school in style and execution as a team gets. What’s your take on them?
Sanchez: They do a really good job at what they do. They’ve been so successful the last two years. They’ve won 17 or 18 games in a row with Coach (Vavae) Tata. Watching the film, they ground and pound, and play really good defense. If it’s working for you, you don’t stray from it. We make it prettier with open packages and the spread, but we want to run the ball and pound it, too.
HPW: If you compare Kahuku to any team you’ve played this season, the last five, 10 years, who would it be?
Sanchez: We’ve played so many games and so many types of offenses. (St.) John Bosco was probably the biggest O-line we’ve ever played. They’re 6-4 and 320 across the board. They were some big dudes. We played Del Oro (Calif.) a few years ago. They’re not as big as Kahuku, but they like their 21 personnel and run the ball. Liberty (Nev.) also has a lot of Polynesians and they like their triple-I (formation) and pound the ball as well. They have good size and they get on top of you right away.
HPW: There’s a growing trend of island players moving to the mainland and you have a few of them at Bishop Gorman.
Sanchez: They’re great. Haskell (Garrett), Palaie (Gaoteote) and Jacob (Isaia), they’re great kids with great families, great parents. They’re very coachable. They’ve done a good job here buying into the program and working extremely hard, just trying to be a Bishop Gorman Gael. Their families moved here and we got them young, before their sophomore years. We’re just fortunate for that move to happen for their families. They’re all doing great in school, too. This is a college preparatory school, there’s no way around that. You have to do well academically, so we’re excited.
HPW: Thanks again for your time, Coach.
Sanchez: Thank you. We know you have your job to do, too.
Much Respect to Coach Sanchez and his boys. Nothing negative to say on this article. To both squads, this is just another game and both would want to come out victorious. Good luck to both teams. GO BIG RED!!!
Short sweet and to the point, good job Paul Honda. Hope both teams play well and come out injury free.
BG has never played a team that runs the jumbo package 90% of the game and wear you down physically with big RBs and Linemen. If you go back to tecmo bowl days its the goal line play, every play, the whole game. That is true smash mouth.
How many of you that played tecmo bowl ran the goal line play every down the entire game? none of you? thats what kahuku does in real life and BG has never had to defend a team like that. Mark my words this is not just another game for BG
Nice interview. His comments at the end about Hawaii kids almost make it seem like it has less to do with the talent the kids already bring with them from Hawaii, and more to do with “we got them young” and our system turned them into top recruits.
Homegrown its the same argument with Oahu’s ILH conference. They scout the best players in popwarner leagues and offer 7th and 8th graders to play in the ILH to build their football team. Its easy to coach blue chippers, try being a coach in the OIA with mediocre talent and problem kids from broken families.
Does anyone know how we can watch the game on tv or listen on radio
Great interview. Yes BG is a great program. I’m sure those kids benefit from the college prep school. Too bad about that negative letter from Texas.
@Philippians 4:13,try Highschoolrewind.com,they normally stream all Gorman games live
Gormans got the backing of the Fertittas and Dana White so money is no option for them,facilities are top notch,but you still gotta play the game.Wouldnt be surprised that Coach Brown is using this game as a recruiting ploy to get some of our kids.Either way,we’ll be there cheering you on,3 minute drive from my house,GO BIG RED,BALL OUT
Lol,when watching film on BG at highschoolrewind.com , I thought Dana White was calling plays from the sidelines. It was coach Sanchez, lol. UFC did build that beautiful stadium.
I agree, Bottom line, if you win with what you got you’re a great coach. Recruiting talented kids and winning is not that hard……..BG should play the best teams every week because they recruit the whole country.
I love how he says the families moved there like they did not recruit the kids and they just moved to Vegas. LMAO 🙂
Mahalo BleedRed I’ll check it out
anywaaaays!! September 13, 2016 at 3:45 pm
BG has never played a team that runs the jumbo package 90% of the game and wear you down physically with big RBs and Linemen. If you go back to tecmo bowl days its the goal line play, every play, the whole game. That is true smash mouth.
How many of you that played tecmo bowl ran the goal line play every down the entire game? none of you? thats what kahuku does in real life and BG has never had to defend a team like that. Mark my words this is not just another game for BG
My buddy Craig runs a betting line in LV. Are you willing to put some money where your mouth is? If you think this isn’t just another game, how about waving the spread and betting straight up. I will tell him to put you down for 5K? That is what most big boys are betting up in LV.
Or let me guess, I am willing to bet that you are not interested. If you give me your info I will make sure he reaches out to you.
ilove88- scared of the spread bro? 5k is peanuts, post your info or are you all talk
She is all talk. Her next post will be insults and stories of how she payed her kids tuition to Punahou and how they graduated from Cal and Stanford. Suga, get off your phone already and finish fold the laundry….
Kahuku fans if Kahuku wins this weekend: We are the greatest! We are the best! Prestige! We are better than the fancy private schools with their fancy education!
Kahuku fans if Kahuku loses: They’re just a bunch of dirty private school recruiters anyway. It’s not that hard to win at BG. All they do is recruit the best players. You don’t have to be a good coach to win there. Their coach probably sucks compared to ours. You don’t have to work hard, put in hours of hard work coaching, scouting opponents, watching film, etc. They all have silver spoons.
Let’s have a little respect for their opponents. BG is an elite program with coaches and players who work extremely hard at what they do. To write off their success as “they’re just a bunch of private school recruiters who pay to win” shows more about you than it does them.
anywaaaays: if Kahuku is just going to line up jumbo goal line and run HB dives until the game is over, then they better be much bigger and physically dominant than BG and any of the teams BG played, including John Bosco (6’4 and 300 pounds across the board). I think that’s not a good assumption to have. Kahuku will have to let their quarterback air out the ball to keep BG honest. I’m rooting for Kahuku but it’ll be a very tough challenge for them this weekend.
But win or lose, it will still be a great experience for the kids and the fans.
@anywaaaays
If braddah no like bet the spread das mean he not confident! Kahuku was giving 21 pts against Waianae cuz they was confident! Besides braddah cannot pay till the end of the month when they credit his EBT card……
When you have so much talent, it’s easy to win against most teams. But when you play a national schedule like BG does, you do need to be able to coaxh and the kids still need to put in the work and play as. team.
Good luck to both squads.
@ The Red Raider Boiz, HIT Somebody!!!!
RRFL!
Stop with the “great experience” or “play hard” or “win or lose”… BS.
Where’s your confidence/support? RR going pound the ball right up their arses. So much so, I made a pretty good size wager on RR with friends from LAS. Straight up bet! Game winner takes pot.
RR… I got you! You… we can do this! I know you won’t disappoint. Go smash some mainlanders.
Ainokea September 14, 2016 at 8:14 am
Stop with the “great experience” or “play hard” or “win or lose”… BS.
Where’s your confidence/support? RR going pound the ball right up their arses. So much so, I made a pretty good size wager on RR with friends from LAS. Straight up bet! Game winner takes pot.
RR… I got you! You… we can do this! I know you won’t disappoint. Go smash some mainlanders.
Sure! And I made a $100,000 bet on the Cleveland Browns to win the Super Bowl….straight up!
No you didn’t. Stop lying.
Al
Yeah Thats how we might be but all not like that actually most of us ain’t like that we dont care if they win or lose its about the boys being able to go to Las Vegas, play the #1 team, and have fun doing that. To me I hope this is more for experience than winning and losing. #rr4l
88 September 13, 2016 at 7:41 pm
She is all talk. Her next post will be insults and stories of how she payed her kids tuition to Punahou and how they graduated from Cal and Stanford. Suga, get off your phone already and finish fold the laundry….
anywaaaays!! September 13, 2016 at 7:30 pm
ilove88- scared of the spread bro? 5k is peanuts, post your info or are you all talk
All you guys is talk! I put data. You put none. If you are all balls like you say you are. Make the bet in vegas. Link the photo to a free site that will show the bet made on the receipt you get. That way you can remain hidden like you want.
The truth is you:
1) Live for football since your kids are low academically
2) Live for football since it’s the only things your kids are good at
3) Are angry since you know after they are done playing football their lives will go downhill
4) Are angry since you failed your children.
Numbers and facts don’t lie. I would rather have my kid playing the flute, knowing they can read and write without the help of an adult, than playing football knowing that I won’t go to college and I will probably live the rest of my life homeless or on welfare.
Yah, that’s a great trade. Shame on you two guys for doing this to your children. Next time use protection.
So much a photo could say whereas Kenny Sanchez non verbal facial expression seems to be saying, “eh wow, I didn’t know”; and very modest after the game?
No the truth is you live for this site cause your novels are ridiculously long. Hopefully one day you will experience what it’s like to make children. Untill than alternate hands. One arm is getting bigger than the other…….. Hah made you look… Shame
Get plenty other kids from Hawaii on BG, just not spotlight material to this polo.BG is good but when Kahuku hit em early on make it hard for the qb to adjust in second half.
Eh, like St John Bosco lead scared BG in the first half like I know our Red Raiders can do the same; contain Tate Martell and Ali Walsh and we got a different football game like a smash mouth to the max victory upset; GO BIG RED, roll them over with Sacred Falls power style.