CAMPBELL will meet Waianae for the Oahu Interscholastic Association football championship at Aloha Stadium tomorrow night. Hernandez gives
Sabers an edgeWhile it will be the second year in a row the two will battle for the OIA bragging rights -- and, gulp, the chance to meet the ILH champion (read St. Louis) in the Prep Bowl -- it wasn't always that way.
You don't have to tell that to Darren Hernandez, Campbell's macho-looking coach, whose fierce countenance could make a pit bull back off.
Obviously, the Sabers didn't have 11 Hernandezes in the starting lineup in the early 1980s when he played for the Ewa Beach school. They were winless in his four years -- 0-31 with one tie.
That's one of the reasons he took up coaching, Hernandez said.
So naturally, over the years, when it came to playing Waianae -- winner of 14 OIA football titles since 1970, making it Titletown Oahu -- Campbell was duck soup.
Now the two schools are pretty much on even terms. And the OIA title could turn either way on a turnover or two.
Which shows you how far Campbell has traveled from that ultimate cul-de-sac, Fort Weaver Road, to local prep football's main highway. All thanks to Hernandez, who is one heck of a motivator and obviously a pretty fair coach, too.
He's an engaging public speaker, too, once he gets away from his prepared notes and talks off the cuff, as he has done at the Honolulu Quarterback Club.
Despite his biker looks, Hernandez has a disarming sense of humor, making it easy to see why he not only commands respect from his players, but gets along with them as well.
HIS bald pate is an aftermath of an impassioned locker-room speech to his team during the 1995 season.
"Beat Waianae and I'll let you shave my head," he told his players. The Sabers then went out and beat the Seariders for the first time after 31 straight losses. Off came the hair as his players chanted, "Bolo head, bolo head."
They loved it. And so did Hernandez, after a fashion. And guess who else liked him bald? His wife, Brenda, a cancer research scientist at the University of Hawaii.
"She loved it. Told me to keep it," Hernandez said.
"She has a degree from Harvard and a masters from Yale," Hernandez added. "But she's not so smart. She married me."
Hernandez still remembers the first time he took his team to Waianae for a scrimmage.
They got off the bus and saw 70 big kids in white uniforms going through their warm-ups.
"My players were all going, 'Ooh, wow, they're big,' " Hernandez said.
Then the team in white left and 70 bigger kids in dark-blue uniforms came on the field.
"Who was that in white?" Hernandez asked.
"Oh, that's the JV team," a Waianae coach told him.
IN a hurry to get to Waianae for the scrimmage, the Sabers forgot to bring footballs. Talk about embarrassing. But that was nothing.
Hernandez had to send an assistant to the Waianae locker room to sheepishly ask to borrow some footballs.
One of the veteran Waianae coaches pointed to a deflated football and said, "Here, take this one."
Intimidated, the Campbell aide started to walk out with it.
Then the coach called him back, "Hey Campbell. Just joking."
Campbell has come a long way. All the way to playing Waianae for the OIA championship for the second straight year. And without having to borrow a football.