Mililani football head coach Rod York has a sense of humor, but it doesn’t really show up that often during football season.
It’s not like he, the person, is all business all the time. But if the subject has to do with his Trojans football team, you can bet money that he’s dead serious about it.
To him, the welfare of his team is of the utmost importance. Sometimes that welfare means discipline, like last week when he doled out punishment to 15 players for breaking team rules. For many of the players, the one-game suspension turned into a one-quarter suspension. But the line was drawn. Whatever it was, it won’t happen again, and that was a very important step for York.
“They 100 percent got the message,” he told Hawaii Prep World this week before the team’s flight to play Liberty of Henderson, Nev., on Friday.
A similar thing happened during an on-campus camp a year ago, when some of the players weren’t taking some things seriously. He spoke to the whole team, and some of them later on said they cried when they realized just how important their mission was and how it made them bond even more.
We all know what happened after that. Mililani, state runner-up a year before, beat Punahou for the Division I state championship.
Bonding is a huge thing to York.
“There is no better way for the team to bond than by going on a trip off-island,” York said. “The rewards of that are unbelievable.”
And he doesn’t expect everything to go absolutely smoothly over there.
“Through conflict, you grow stronger,” he added. “The players grow together, the coaches grow together, and the team is stronger at the end of the day. We preach one team, one family, and our goal is to be 93 (players) strong.”
York said he expects the parents of the players to have a good time in Las Vegas, of which Henderson is a suburb.
The players? Not so much.
“This is a business trip,” York said. “We will tour the UNLV campus and eat buffets and maybe go to the mall.”
The Trojans planned to practice and eat dinner with Liberty (a 43-16 loser to No. 2 Saint Louis at Aloha Stadium last Saturday in its season opener) on Thursday.
Wth! Is mililani sponsor by prep world? Talk about another school. Mililani has talent we get that, there are many talented football teams in Hawaii. So talk about them. This so called ” prep world” has become bias. It should be called Mililani world. Most of the feed has been about mililani. Come out prep world! Highlight some other team.
@NickAbramo Keep doing what your doing. Excellent write ups about Mililani. Mililani has been doing exciting things on and off the field, going places and doing things to get the exposure. Until some other school steps up and does something worthy to write about thank you for all your coverage.
Why would a head coach water down discipline by changing a “one game” suspension into a one quarter suspension. It appears winning is more important than enforcing discipline and rules. Mr York, this will come back to haunt you, for sure!
4 of the top team are undefeated. You can’t find a story with those teams? Wait I should ask this writer if he following Mililani. Maybe, he is on campus get the scoop on them or maybe he is on the road game following them. Come on! Let’s be real. Once they beat liberty we are gonna see 5 of 10 feeds about how great Mililani did. It will over shadow all the great game that are being played this week. I and agree with You Derek.
@football Relax. They happen to be the number one team in the state. We have endured countless articles and media coverage on Kahuku and Saint Louis over the years. Whatever team is #1 always gets the media attention, right? It’s pretty simple to not read if you are not interested instead of rage over something so petty.
That’s some arrogant stuff right there Trojans808. Lots of schools doing good out there. Grow up
Why do you think Alabama gets all the coverage???
When your the best team people will tune it to see what’s happening on a daily basis.
Who cares what’s going on with the other teams.
Keep up the mililani coverage until someone beats them!
@Truth I enjoy hearing about other teams, too, and I think Hawaii Prep World does a great job covering teams across the state. It’s always the defending champions/#1 ranked team that gets the most coverage and that happens to be Mililani this year. Why are people so against that? That’s just life. I would love Northwestern to get more football coverage but do they deserve it? Not really. I am not going to be a bitch about it though. The amount of coverage a team gets will change as teams rise and fall.
@Truth Yes, I agree a lot of schools are doing GREAT out there but I guess just not enough to get the News papers attention to write an article. That’s the TRUTH.
sorry if I offended anybody. It was just my opinion .
As a St. Louis fan, I do enjoy reading about Mililani, primarily because they are going to represent the state as Hawai’i’s number one team on the mainland. Making a statement on the mainland will have far reaching effects on the overall state of football in Hawai’i on a national platform. In the same sense, it would also be nice to read about Punahou’s preparation for their game against Del Oro High tomorrow. That match up, to me, is even more intriguing than the Mililani/Liberty match up. FYI, if anyone wants to watch the Punahou/DelOro game online, you can go to this site http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/search?query=Del+Oro (You do have to register for free).
Just wondering if all 100 plus players made the trip? That’s hard to leave a few back. York’s quote a few weeks ago after smashing McKinley ,” Football is suppose to be Fun”? Why so serious. Funny how Kapolei was keeping up with Mililani, till Coach said ” Okay I change my mind, you 15 suspended players can play”.
Thanks for the info, KonaWarrior!! I think people will be interested in watching that Punahou Del Oro game online. BTW, it wasn’t on Prep World, but Paul Honda had one story about Punahou’s and Mililani’s trips this week in Tuesday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Check it out, if you can.
Hello Football, this is Nick Abramo the writer of about three of the four posts (more or less) we’ve had on Mililani this week. You are correct that Mililani is getting a a lot of coverage right now. They are ranked No. 10 in the nation and going on a huge trip. I’m guessing that you have not read our other posts about other football teams this season because if you did, you would know that we do cover teams all across the state. So, there you go, yes, to repeat, Mililani, I agree, is getting a lot of coverage. But I 100 percent disagree with your assertion that we don’t cover other teams. I will make another reply with a link to my last story on a different team, and at the same time, I would ask you to check out the stories about all the other teams. They come out daily on HawaiiPrepWorld.com. If you can reply that you agree that we do cover other teams, that would be very cool. If you still disagree. I will keep on posting the stories here so you can see them. I’m telling you right now, there are a lot of them and you may or may not want to stick around to see them all. And that will just be stories written by me. After I’m done with that, I’ll start adding stories and videos about all the other teams written by Billy Hull, Paul Honda, Jason Kaneshiro, Jerry Campany, Stan Lee and Kyle Galdeira. Anyway, you get my point. And now, I will discuss with my colleagues at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii Prep World and get their professional opinions on whether we cover No. 1 Mililani too much. If they say back off, I will certainly spread the word around to our other Hawaii Prep World writers that Mililani is getting too much coverage.
Was only going to post one, but I figured I’d get the ball rolling with three. One of them focuses on a team that lost 78-0.
http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football/kapoleis-tagovailoa-impressive-in-first-start/
http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football/tigers-showed-off-the-pride-of-mckinley/
http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football/kahuku-qb-situation-worthy-of-a-look/
Hey Nick, Do you know any information about the Mililani/Liberty game if their will be any live coverages or anything like that?
So far this season I have read stories about almost all the high schools, just maybe not as much of the outer island teams but that is understandable, hard to get someone to cover everything! @ the original comment! So far this year millilani has been making the most headlines! Why wouldn’t you write about it. Anyways keep up the good work Hawaii prep world! And thanks for keeping us kanakas living on da mainland in da loop with all the stories! Mahalo
We will have a live blog on Friday night, both mainland games will be streamed.
Note: The Punahou-Del Oro game will be streamed live at ow.ly/RInWS http://ow.ly/i/cLXD7 . The Mililani-Liberty game will stream at https://scorestream.com/games/boys-high-school-varsity-football/liberty-patriots-vs-mililani-trojans/sep-05-2015?gameId=349528
You cant please everyone bradah. Keep doing what you get paid to do and we will keep reading. If the Crusaders killed these guys, Mililani should have no problem. On another note thats sad if what Martin posted about the kids who were suspended is true.
Martin and 88: I really don’t know all the particulars of the suspensions. I remember hearing about Timoteo and some others being suspended for the game just before the kickoff against Kapolei. When I spoke with Rod York about it Sunday night (and let me tell you this: part of the reason I got so many stories on Mililani this week is that Rod told me A LOT of really interesting stuff that night). I could have fit it all into one story, but I felt several items were worthy of their own story (Milton hearing from Oregon; Tanuvasa having a great defensive game; Liberty is a business trip). But back to the suspensions, with the score 27-21 early in the second quarter, I was surprised to see Timoteo come in and catch a 60-yard TD pass. When I asked Rod about the suspensions, he told me he felt that the players got the message and that is all he wanted in the first place, however long it took — one quarter, one game, etc. … My guess is that if he firmly said, “You will not play at all in the next game no matter what” and then changed his mind, it would be giving in. But, and this is another guess, I think he probably said, “You are out until further notice,” which gives him the flexibility to do whatever he wants. … Plus, it’s his team and it’s his discipline, so he can choose to play or not play anyone he wants. My opinion.
Concerning Jerry’s post, I took a look at the scorestream (Mililani-Liberty game) site and it looks like it’s a place for fans to put their own photos and videos of the game, not actual video of the game from beginning to end. Not exactly sure about that. THe other one (Punahou-Del Oro) is on the NFHS High School network and it appears that it’s going to video of the game from beginning to end. You have to sign up and become a member of the site to watch, but it’s free and very easy to do.
@NickAbramo How does this work for the Mililani QB, he is already committed to U.H.? Isnt Coach York supposed to honor that and tell other colleges to back off?
Regarding favoritism about Mililani, for football its hard to complain about Mililani they are winning. But last year for girls volleyball a Mililani player was the west POY, they didn’t even win the Girls VB West? Then, Mililani had 4 on the 1st and 2nd team. Meanwhile, OIA West winners Kapolei (who beat Mililani) had only 1 person on the first team and none on 2nd team. There’s something off there. I dont know who’s fault, maybe not the paper but something didn’t add up.
A quarter is fair, its York’s team so his rules…. Kalakaua is an awsome wr but Mililani has a whole bunch of good ones so their pretty safe in that department.
hahashandah September 3, 2015 at 10:31 pm
@NickAbramo How does this work for the Mililani QB, he is already committed to U.H.? Isnt Coach York supposed to honor that and tell other colleges to back off?
If McKenzie did not sign his LOI, he is still fair game for all of the other coaches out there which will not violate any NCAA recruiting rules. It would be interesting to see what would happen if Oregon suddenly extends a scholorship offer to him and see if his commitment to UH is firm.
@KonaWarrior; UUhhhhhhhh lets see UH or OREGON? OREGON wins every day, all day and twice on Sundays…
@NICK
I say continue writing about Mililani because after this year you won’t be writing anything close to what you have this year. Mililani can thank Farrington’s Coach for blasting them because now York cannot recruit. We shall see….So let it be written, so let it be done!