[ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS ]

KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM New St. Louis School head football coach Delbert Tengan has big shoes to fill.

Orderly Manner

The new St. Louis coach
rose through the system

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

DELBERT Tengan's office is a picture of organization.

Everything in his tidy corner of St. Louis School's Gerber Fieldhouse has its place -- from the game tapes arranged neatly on the bookcase next to the television to the folders and notepads sitting at right angles on his desk. It's a place dust bunnies go to die.

"I try to be as organized as I can," Tengan said. "I might be organized to a fault, but I just feel it helps me function.

"Because of my workload of teaching and coaching two sports I think I need to be. I'm not saying that's the right way to do it, there's other people who are messy and still get the job done. But that's the way I grew up and that's how I am."

Tengan will need to have his house in order this fall as he succeeds Cal Lee, the most successful coach in Hawaii high school football history, at St. Louis.

Tengan expects a few butterflies when he oversees his first official practice as head coach of the 16-time defending Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion tomorrow and figures to have a bunch more when St. Louis plays Nanakuli in its first preseason game Aug. 24.

But he's approaching the biggest challenge of his career with the even demeanor he developed over 14 years of working his way up the coaching ranks at St. Louis.

"I'm slowly getting my feet wet and getting more comfortable with being a head coach at St. Louis," Tengan said. "I've always understood what the job entails and how big the job is and how high profile this job is."

Tengan said working with the team in the summer pass league helped him get used to the idea of being the head man. But he's still adjusting to some of the other duties that come with the title.

"If it was all Xs and Os it would be no problem," he said, "but there's all these problems that pop up, administrative things that you have to deal with that makes the job a little tougher, things that I've never had to worry about before."

TENGAN, 42, never played high school football, choosing instead to concentrate on basketball at Kailua.

He started coaching football with the Surfriders' junior varsity staff and began his association with St. Louis as Lee's student-teacher. Lee later hired Tengan as an athletic trainer in 1983. It didn't take long for Lee to notice Tengan's natural gifts for coaching.

"We shared my office and he'd be the only guy talking football because I didn't have anybody else on the staff," said Lee, the St. Louis athletic director. "We just started talking football daily and he had a good rapport with the kids and I told him, 'Have you ever thought about coaching football?' And he thought he'd give it a try."

Tengan started out coaching defensive backs in 1987 and produced his share of all-state players before being promoted to defensive coordinator four years ago.

After Lee announced his retirement as coach last year, Tengan first declined the chance to take the reins of the program, but accepted the position in March after reconsidering his decision.

"I really had no intentions of becoming the head football coach when I first started here," Tengan said. "But I think Cal has done a great job of preparing me for this position by slowly giving me more responsibilities from being the DB coach to being the defensive coordinator. So I've slowly been trained to be a head coach."

Said Lee: "You have to pay your dues. You're talking about being a trainer, position (coach), coordinator, he's paid his dues. That's how you build something. He knows how it is on the bottom so he has great appreciation for the trainers we have and he's got good appreciation of the coaches that work with him."

TENGAN WILL REMAIN the team's defensive coordinator and will continue to work with the defensive backs, although he has hired Todd Los Banos, coach of the state champion St. Louis wrestling team, to assist him with the DBs.

The longtime defensive coach admitted that getting more involved with the offense has been foreign ground and he is giving offensive coordinator Vince Passas free reign on that side of the ball.

In addition to Passas, Tengan retained the bulk of a coaching staff that averages double-figures in years of service at St. Louis.

"They already know what should be done and they can go ahead and do their job and it makes my job a whole lot easier," Tengan said. "One person is not going to be able to coach 85 kids, so your staff has to do the work and I trust them."

Tengan's job isn't completely unfamiliar as he has coached the varsity basketball team for three seasons, posting a record of 47-25. But he realizes football at St. Louis and the expectations it generates are on another plane.

"Cal jokingly told me, 'Don't lose a game or the AD's going to be on your butt,' " Tengan said. "I'd rather have that expectation than have the alumni say, 'If you win two (games) that's a good season.' "

Tengan said he isn't going to try to escape Lee's shadow in his first season as football coach, instead welcoming any opportunity to find some shade.

"I've told Cal he can be Al Davis if he wants to be. Anytime he wants to make a suggestion I'll be more than happy," Tengan said.

"You're getting advice from someone that's been the most successful high school coach in Hawaii, why not listen? Why be stubborn and say, 'I'm going to do it my way.' I'm not intimidated by him being over my shoulder; in fact I ask him to be as involved as he can be."

IN ADDITION to his continued guidance, Lee also left Tengan with a stocked cupboard. The Crusaders return nine starters, including six players who were first- or second-team all-state selections last season.

Defensive lineman Tolifili Liufau figures to be one of the state's top recruits and has all-state defensive backs Timo Paepule and Jonah Lakatani behind him. Bobby George returns for his third season at quarterback and will throw to all-state wide receiver Jason Rivers.

Tengan also has the Crusaders' game with consensus national champion De La Salle to look forward to on Sept. 21. He said the game has former Crusader greats greener than the school's Fieldturf practice field.

"I've had guys like Olin (Kreutz), Dominic (Raiola), Chris (Fuamatu-Ma'afala), even Jason Gesser come in and tell me they are very jealous that this year's team has a chance to play De La Salle," Tengan said.

But Tengan's penchant for order won't allow him to look past Nanakuli or the Crusaders' ILH opener against Punahou on Sept. 7 in anticipation of the De La Salle game.

And as the pressure starts to build he knows he can find support just as easily as he can locate any game tape in his office.

"The biggest part is trusting God," Tengan said. "I have the support and the prayers of my church family and I know I just have to do my best and leave the rest up to the Lord."

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