Maeva moves into
Kaiser coaching role

He parlays his playing experience
into a head coaching gig

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

Former Hawaii standout David Maeva has been named the new varsity football coach at Kaiser High School.

Maeva was picked from a group of nine applicants considered by the school's selection committee.

"It's a big weight off my chest," Maeva said. "We put in our applications in December so it's been just hanging by the phone waiting to see what the scoops were."

Kaiser athletic director Bill von Arnswaldt informed Maeva of his selection last week before making the official announcement yesterday. He said Maeva's experience in weight training and track and field as well as his football background made him an attractive choice.

"He comes in as a complete package as a coach," von Arnswaldt said. "One of Dave's strong points is that he's a good motivator. We have a few kids out there who might not be playing football, and maybe with David's enthusiasm for the game, he'll be able to draw these kids out."

Maeva replaces Tony Gayer, who stepped down as head coach after seven seasons at Kaiser. The Cougars finished 4-4 last season and tied for sixth in the Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference.

Maeva graduated from Kamehameha in 1986 and played with the UH football team from 1987-90. He was a two-time All-Western Athletic Conference selection as a linebacker and went on to play five seasons in the Canadian Football League with the Las Vegas Posse, British Columbia Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

He served as an assistant coach at Kailua in 1991 and '92, and coached the Kamehameha junior varsity squad during a year off from the CFL.

Maeva highlighted UH linebackers coach George Lumpkin and former Kamehameha coach Cal Chai as his coaching role models.

"I've played football at a lot of different levels and I'm going to take all the great things all these guys had and I want to try be that type of coach," Maeva said. "At the same time, up in Canada I had a lot of crappy coaches, and I'm not going to do the type of junk they did or be that type of person.

"The coaches who were good were good people, and that's what I want to be. It rubbed off on myself as a player and us as a team."

Maeva works as a stevedore superintendent for Matson Navigation. He was a physical education teacher at Kaiser for the 1996-97 school year and served as an assistant coach with the Cougars track and field team.

Kaiser's seven-member staff will include a reunion of the "Mento and Psycho" duo who led the UH defense in the late 1980s. Maeva was dubbed "Mento" for his free-wheeling style of play and said Mike Tresler, who went by "Psycho" as a Rainbow, will be a part-time assistant with the Cougars.

"I have full faith in him getting the kids in the right frame of mind," Maeva said.

Maeva said he will run the defense this season, while Jimmy Defries will be the offensive coordinator.

Maeva said he received congratulations on his appointment from UH coaches June Jones and Rich Miano and had friends in the coaching fraternity such as Castle's Tony Pang-Kee, Kahuku's Louis Santiago and McKinley's David Tanuvasa offer their help in setting up his program.

"I'm lucky these guys still like me enough to help me out," Maeva said. "I'm going to have a lot of favors to pay off."

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