WAIMEA — When all things traditional descend into commonplace routine, respect and celebration for time-honored histories are threatened to be marginalized along the way.
Awareness draws attention by people who care. A need grows to refresh the past and breathe into it new life in the present.
That concept might not be too far removed for the recent decision by Hawaii Preparatory Academy to hire Albert Cummings as its head football coach, replacing 30-year-old Daniel Te’o-Nesheim who passed away last October.
Odd that a relative newcomer to the Big Island would be the one to help rekindle the rival with Honokaa, but that’s what appears to be happening at HPA with Cummings, born and raised on Oahu, but a Waimea resident for almost five years. A 20-year law enforcement veteran, Cummings came up in a football family, played quarterback at Kailua High School and later coached on the staff of Rich Miano at Kaiser.
He knows some things about big time high school football. He ran a spread offense one year, coached in smash mouth, power run games and along the way, he learned something even more enduring about building a core belief in whatever the mission might be.
For the last two years he was the offensive coordinator at Honokaa for coach Noeau Lindsey, who had done some research on Cummings when he heard Cummings had moved into the community. It turned out that they each had keiki at Kanu o ka Aina, a public charter school in Waimea.
Lindsey introduced himself to Cummings at an event at the school, asked if he had any interest in helping out with the football team.
“I was looking around to do some things with the staff,” Lindsey said, “and there’s no doubt, he fit right in.”
At the time, Lindsey felt the Honokaa staff needed to be refreshed, he had a growing feeling that maybe players had become weary of hearing the same things from the same people.
“I was looking for new ideas for Honokaa, to bring in some new people with new ideas from different places,” Lindsey said. “Revitalized, that’s a good word, I wanted to revitalize things.”
Cummings, a big man with a shaved head and an imposing physique, commanded the attention of players and helped bring a new feel to the Dragons’ program for two years, then, following the tragic death of Te’o-Nesheim, he cast his glance toward Ka Makani.
“When we had a chance to talk about it, I said, ‘You gotta’ take your shot at this opening,’ ” Lindsey recalled. “You can’t sit around and wait for this or for that, there are not many of these opportunities you get in your life, so you should go after it, make it a priority.’
“He knew he would never be held back by me, he had my blessings.”
Cummings would love to talk story about his players, what the offense will be, maybe some of the special skill sets of particular players, but he can’t do that, not yet.
Interested football players had a “10 or 15 minutes” introduction to their new coach a few weeks back, but he has to wait another week, until May 7, until he gets them on the field to observe with his own eyes and instincts the ingredients he will have to work with when he becomes a head coach for the first time.
Cummings is both world-wise from his time in law enforcement on Oahu, and street smart, owing to his large family upbringing and his occupation, but becoming a head coach for the first time at the high school level brings a list of unforeseen occurrences that are always a surprise.
“There are lots of things you can’t plan for,” Lindsey said, “you just have to go with it. There will be times you think to yourself, ‘I’m supposed to be coaching football, why am I doing this?’ but it’s all good in the end.”
HPA and Honokaa are smaller schools, where you can’t pick up the phone and ask someone else to do whatever it is some student, parent or situation has fallen in your lap.
There’s a lot of figuring things out on the fly and then seeking remedies or solutions that fit the mission of the place, and the team. Again, Cummings may be ready.
“I’m one of those who always wanted to learn more, I was a sponge guy,” Cummings said, “and these days, lots of these kids are that same way.”
At a school with approximately 600 students from K-12, there always have been and there always will be an issue with numbers of available players at HPA, but Cummings seems well-positioned for that eventuality with an approach to coaching that starts from an inside-out perspective.
“I’m going to be passionate about these guys, and I want them to be passionate about us, about the team, about their teammates, about the next practice,” Cummings said. “I know, from playing them the last two years, this is not a big team, not a lot of big guys, and that’s OK, I’ll take heart over size, any day, any time.
“That’s my challenge, that’s how I see it,” he said. “If we can bring these kids together, make them feel the passion this game generates, we will have our team.”
There is real history in HPA football, not just the kind every school talks about, but the kind that separates Ka Makani from a lot of other smaller schools. Te’o-Nesheim and Max Unger are HPA grads who went on to strong college careers (Washington and Oregon, respectively), and then made their marks in the NFL, where Unger is still one of the best centers in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints.
“They need to know what’s possible,” Cummings said of his players, “but what we will be teaching isn’t about getting to the NFL, it will be about making the most of your life, being a better person, being more productive in your life, the kinds of things everyone wants.
“We want to teach success in life and those kinds of lessons will always be the most valuable,” he said. “That part of it doesn’t get in the way of anything else, it’s the big thing — there will always be someone bigger than you, stronger than you, faster than you, whatever it may be, but if you accept the challenge, you do a little more work to feel more comfortable with it.
“Same thing in school,” he said, “if you want to be a great student, you will put in a little more time than someone who just wants to get through. Those lessons are valuable in life, they are things you learn at this age that will make you more successful in life.”
Cummings and Lindsey have already been joking about the rivalry, whether one should have to wear the t-shirt of the other after a loss when the coaches meet at midfield.
That probably won’t happen, it’s too awkward and short-lived, and doesn’t have much a daily draw the week after the game.
But when you grasp the relationship of two coaches who essentially take their players from the same groups of Pop Warner teams in the area, and you understand they realize both the friendly nature of the rivalry and the importance of being part of teams based on community and personal growth, conclusions are easily drawn.
A tradition at HPA has new life and direction, a rivalry is about to be rekindled with Honokaa.
Wipe the slate clean, turn the page and move on, choose your motivation, the truth is that for these two schools, everything old is new again, and that’s a good thing for both school.
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