Success as a combination of old-school football disciplinarian and beloved players’ coach is rare. But there was nothing common about Ron Marciel, who accomplished that in a career spanning five decades at seven schools in Hawaii, California and Michigan.
Marciel, mostly known for making Saint Louis School competitive again and helping establish the values for its future domination before making stops at two BIIF schools, died of natural causes in Kailua, Oahu on May 27 at age 84.
“He was a combination of both,” said Mark Kane, one of the captains of Marciel’s 1965 Crusaders team. “When I watched ‘Remember The Titans’ I said, ‘I played for that coach, the Denzel Washington character.’ (Marciel) could be hard, a perfectionist. On our offensive (practice) jersey the word ‘perfection’ was stenciled, and defense with the word ‘pride.’ We’d run the same play until we ran it perfectly. Then it was sprints, sprints, sprints until you puke. And then you sprint some more.”
Sometimes it was under the lights … of the cars of parents who had come to pick up the players.
Marciel’s son, Mark, remembers this happening in the ’70s, too, when he also played for his father.
“We’d been out there for three hours,” he said. “And sometimes after games, if we didn’t put out a good effort, he’d tell us, ‘OK, gentlemen, up to the gym.’ And we’d be running the stairs in full uniform. Not as much as punishment, but to show that you still had something left that you could have used during the game instead.”
But Marciel was also known for empowering players.
Once the game started, it was theirs to win or lose. For example, he’d let quarterbacks call their own plays.
“Once the preparation was done, he’d tell the captains, ‘OK, get your boys going,’” Kane recalled.
The formula mostly worked. His record was 127-71-8 as head coach of four Hawaii high school varsity football teams: Saint Louis (1965-70 and ‘73-78), Kalani (‘88), Hawaii Prep (‘89-90, 11-6-1 record) and Honokaa (2005-08, 16-17).
He was also a successful coach at Los Altos in California, and served as a college assistant at the University of Hawaii under Dave Holmes and Michigan State for Duffy Daugherty.
Marciel coached the Crusaders to three Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships, including 1966, when Saint Louis took the rare triple crown of the ILH football, basketball and baseball titles.
He also coached Saint Louis against Waianae in the first Prep Bowl, where the Crusaders lost 6-0 to Waianae and another coaching legend, Larry Ginoza, in 1973.
Marciel played basketball and baseball at Saint Louis and graduated in 1951. He also played those sports at Stanford, to which he transferred after one year at The Citadel and graduated from in 1955. He first played organized football in Korea as a member of the United States Army in 1956, after which he went to Los Altos to teach and coach.
Upon his return to Hawaii, he rebuilt the Crusaders program that had fallen behind Kamehameha, Punahou and Farrington in the ILH.
Marciel eventually became athletic director, and holds the distinction of hiring — and firing after one season — Cal Lee. Lee got a second chance eventually, and became the winningest coach in state history. Now on his third tour as Crusaders coach, Lee led Saint Louis to the state championship last year.
While the Saint Louis dynasty Marciel helped set the stage for was in full bloom, he moved on to the Big Island. He continued coaching at Honokaa after beating colon cancer during the ’00s.
In his later years, at a public school, he adjusted his coaching style.
“We try to give them chances, more than I’m used to giving, but where are they going to go if we don’t give them football? You win small battles, real good battles, and a lot of kids have turned into fine citizens,” Marciel, then the Honokaa coach, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Paul Honda in 2008. “There are a lot more important things in these kids’ lives than winning and losing.”
Mark Marciel said his father died peacefully Saturday, “surrounded by many people who loved him.”
Among his last visitors were former players, including Buddy Los Baños, who was quarterback in 1966 and later a member of many of Marciel’s coaching staffs.
Marciel was known for matter-of-fact pregame speeches in the school locker room, focusing on attention to detail and trick plays, such as an onside kick to start the game, or a flea-flicker on the first offensive play.
The speeches would invariably end with, “OK, gentlemen, let’s take a bus ride.”
And that is what his players whispered to him in their final messages of gratitude.
“He had a wonderful lifetime of educating and coaching in a lot of different venues and a lot of good experiences,” Mark Marciel said.
In addition to Mark and daughter-in-law Cathy, Ron Marciel is survived by his wife, Gail; brother, Robert; sister, Dorothy Allinson; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
