By Craig Kojima, Star-BulletinDavid Tanuvasa instructs Aukuso Tuiolemotu
in the art of line play.
It’s What’s Up Front
That Counts
McKinley football coach
By Pat Bigold
David Tanuvasa takes offensive line
play to heart and it's a hit
with his players
Star-BulletinDAVID Tanuvasa didn't need to use Bill Romanowski's jaw-breaking hit on Carolina Panthers' quarterback Kerry Collins to make his point. In his sixth year as head coach of McKinley High's varsity football program, the Star-Bulletin's 1996 All-State Coach of the Year has always made keeping quarterbacks out of the emergency room a critical priority.
For that reason, he has elevated the role of offensive lineman to a level unheard of in many prep programs.
"The bottom line is that the battle is up front, and if you can't win on the line of scrimmage, there's no way you're going to win a football game," he said this week during the Tigers' fall camp.
Tanuvasa knows that while a touchdown pass, a long run, or a sack will be highlighted on the Jumbotron at Aloha Stadium, the subtle work of an offensive lineman usually goes unnoticed.
Moreover, Tanuvasa knows the offensive lineman is the fan's favorite scapegoat on a failed play.
"The lineman can throw a good block, and if the running back does something wrong, it's the lineman's fault from the fan's point of view," Tanuvasa said.
"When the running back gets good yardage, they don't say 'Wow, the line is good.' They're going to say the running back is good."
In fact, Tanuvasa said, so little is ever recorded about the work of offensive linemen that coaches have a very hard time determining who really deserves to make the postseason division all-star teams.
At McKinley, Tanuvasa makes sure he knows how good a job his linemen are doing, and he makes sure the linemen know, too.
"We record pancakes, good blocks, how many downs he plays per game, as well as minuses where he didn't protect the quarterback and the quarterback got pressured for a sack," Tanuvasa said.
For every pancake block, in which an offensive lineman puts his opponent on his butt, a "Big Hit" decal is awarded.
To a lineman, a pancake is the equivalent of a home run.
Regular protection blocks and touchdowns scored while a lineman is on the field are also recognized with special decals.
"If a player gets three, four or five 'Big Hits' in a game, he'll probably be the offensive player of the game," Tanuvasa said.
Yes, he would pick a lineman over a so-called skill player if he believed it was warranted.
As far as taking care of the quarterback is concerned, the message is taken to heart at McKinley.
Players such as co-captain Aukuso Tuiolemotu don't sleep well if 5-foot-6, 145-pound Tigers' quarterback Charley Napulou goes home from a game battered and bruised.
"When he gets hit, I take it real personal," said Tuiolemotu, the left guard who is 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds. "I go out there to work even harder and protect him the next time."
Tuiolemotu, a senior whom Tanuvasa calls one of the best lineman he's ever coached, had 13 pancake blocks in six White Conference games last season and was named offensive player of the game three times.
Francis (Sammy) Silva, a 6-5, 278-pound converted defensive lineman feels the same responsibility to Napulou.
"He's like my brother -- we've played together in JV and all through varsity," said Silva.
"We always tell our quarterback that after every good play or decent protection, he should turn around and tell his linemen, 'Thank you,' " Tanuvasa said.
"I jump up and hit them on the helmet," said Napulou, who spends many off-campus hours in the company of his protectors.
"It's like I'm the money bag and they're the armored truck."
Tanuvasa bristles at the stereotype of linemen being bigger but less intelligent than skill players.
"Linemen have to make a critical decision in a snap of the fingers," said Tanuvasa, who was an All-Western Athletic Conference second-team defensive lineman for the University of Hawaii in 1990.
"There's a myth about linemen being big, dumb oxes. Whoever made that up, well, I don't know about him. But I'll tell you one thing, if a guy is not smart, he can't start on the line here."
A proposed 16-team football playoff format was given the OK by the Oahu Interscholastic Association athletic directors this week. It will be taken up by league principals on Aug. 25. 16-team playoff format
Star-Bulletin staff
approved by OIA directorsThe ADs voted for the measure, 18-1, with one abstention on Monday during a meeting at the OIA office.
The format, designed to increase revenue from the sport, would qualify all seven teams in the Red Conference, five in the White and four in the Blue.
