Closing in on the end of perhaps its most tumultuous season, the football program at Waiakea High School is about to get very busy.
When longtime coach and former Waiakea student Neil Azevedo informed athletics director Kalei Namohala he was stepping away from the program, she picked up the phone and made a call to Bernard Kia, informing him of the situation.
“I was thankful that she asked,” said Kia, the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, about the phone call he received three weeks ago. “(Azevedo) has been a friend for a long time, but this was a surprise to me. It was something we had never discussed, so it all came in a big rush, really.”
Azevedo said he had pressing issues at home involving “health and family, and I needed to be there,” so Kia became the interim coach.
What happens next will be determined after the season when Namohala opens the search for a new coach.
“We will open the job, then schedule interviews, probably from November 1 to November 15, and then it will be taking interviews, working with the search committee and hopefully, we’ll have a new coach by December 1. At least, that’s the goal.”
Finding a coach capable of making Waiakea competitive in football could be a tough assignment. The team is winless in six games and has been outscored 243-28, or an average of 40.5 points per game allowed to opponents, while scoring an average of less than a touchdown, or 4.6 per outing. Waiakea plays at Kealakehe (1-5 record) today.
Kia, a longtime youth sports coach in Hilo, has been a Waiakea assistant since 2018 and realizes the situation he faces.
“We haven’t won here in a long time,” Kia said, “and that brings problems. Kids transfer out, and we have to deal with that.”
Waiakea has 42 players on its roster, but because of injuries and eligibility issues, only 28 have been suiting up for games.
“Personnel is the biggest issue,” Kia said. “I’m fortunate to have a staff I know well. We’ve worked together, but there’s only so much you can do in these situations. We have only a couple games left, and then we’ll see what happens.”
“I would love to get someone well-qualified with a Waiakea background, but I’m not going to be picky about that,” Namohala said, “We are going to pick the one we think is the best candidate for a new direction.
“I understand what the record was,” she said, “but Neil was a success in getting the boys to do the things that needed to be done. He was well-liked, but things didn’t work out the way we all would have wanted.”
Kia has made some changes, opting for more 10 personnel — one running back, no tight ends — but major changes in the middle of a season can be counterproductive if players haven’t had a preseason to practice and learn the subtleties of new positions.
“We tweaked some things on defense,” he said. “We changed the front a bit and did some other things, but it’s really about personnel, and in the time we’ve been here, we’ve always said, ‘Come on, turn out for the football team, and bring some friends with you,’ but that’s not going to help us this late in the season.
“We are trying to get them to really understand the positions and what sound fundamentals are in those places, but it’s a tough thing to be doing that and trying to prepare for an upcoming opponent all at the same time.”
The ultimate goal for Namohala would be to find a qualified head coach already teaching at Waiakea.
“That would absolutely best the best thing,” she said, “to have someone coaching who’s teaching there, walking the halls, communicating back and forth with students all day. But I don’t know how realistic that is.”
Part of the reason for that is Namohala, an AD for 13 years, just started at Waiakea in January, so there’s been a natural learning curve, getting to know the personnel.
“The kids have responded well,” Kia said. “They want to be coached, they want to learn, so we have that, but we’re almost at the end of the season, and we don’t know at this point what the future might bring.”
Neither does Namohala, but she’s about to dig in and try to find some answers for the future of Waiakea football.