Edward "Skippa" Diaz faced his Farrington High School football team and growled like a grizzly bear at three players who had missed a practice. They would run an extra two miles, he decided, as they hung their heads.
Then Diaz spoke to his young Governors about their 10 fumbles in last Saturday's preseason loss to powerhouse Morse High School of San Diego.
"We have to execute and play hard," he said, the only other sound coming from the H-1 traffic in the background. "We have to make plays happen on a team level."
Then his voice rose again, like the crescendo in a symphony, and his eyes flashed like cymbals above the thick, gray mustache.
"If we have zero fumbles and zero interceptions," he thundered, "we can beat anybody!"
Then the players gathered around their coach, and they all joined hands.
"Let's go!" they shouted in unison.
THE already sweat-soaked players started running laps and Diaz walked over to greet a friend and his two sons.
"Hello Uncle Skip," said both little boys, who were each rewarded with a kiss atop their heads from the coach.
"Let me have a sip of your water," Diaz said with a smile to the boys' father. "I just scolded the guys and it made my lips dry."
Diaz, who grew up in the rugged streets of Kalihi, is beginning his 15th season as the head coach at Farrington.
It is already a very special one.
The 52-year-old Diaz almost died eight months ago. He suffered from a condition called sleep apnea, which can stop your breathing before you wake up.
It got so bad that on Dec. 8, 1995, it caused heart failure and shut down his vital organs.
"He should have been dead," recalled Mary Diaz, his wife of 18 years who is a vice principal at Waialua High School. "It's like a miracle happened. And now he's doing great."
Farrington athletic director Agenhart Ellis agreed.
"It's like a new life for him, a second chance," he said. "That's how close he was."
Then Ellis laughed and added: "He's screaming a lot more at me and the kids, so I know he's OK."
DIAZ said he has lost 110 pounds and eats a diet of mostly vegetables, fruit, poi, rice and bread. Sugar and salt are definitely out.
"I'm feeling good," he said. "My wife and my doctor have really given me a boost in life.
"I never had it so beautiful as in the last eight months. I enjoy my wife, I play golf, I coached track and now I coach football. And I really love the kids."
Diaz offers so much more than football - on the field and in the classroom, where he will return this fall.
"I'll be teaching again and that's the stress coming on now," he said, again smiling. "But I'll use the same strategy: bam-bam-bam. And they fall in place."
Don't let the tough exterior fool you, though. The thousands of young people he has helped over the years know that he truly cares for them. Skippa always has a hug - and a message.
"I tell the kids what my parents taught me: be respectful, be disciplined, work hard, do the best you can," he said. "All the kids get a daily diet of that from me."
It is truly a new season for Diaz, who graduated from Farrington in 1962 and went on to play football and get his degree at Oregon State.
Thank goodness we didn't lose him last December, because his work as a true teacher and role model is so desperately needed these days - when our youth face so much danger and temptation.
Yes, Edward "Skippa" Diaz has lost 110 pounds. But his presence still looms so large.
And his value as a person remains huge.