The phone rarely takes a break, so neither does Kenny Sanchez.
“I don’t know how I do it some days,” said Sanchez, now in his fifth season as the head football coach at national powerhouse Bishop Gorman (Nev.). “It’s crazy, man.”
Sanchez gets up at 4 a.m., does his workout, and is on campus by 7 a.m. After an administrative meeting, he presented school rules to the junior class by 9:30 a.m. It is part of his job as the school’s Director of Discipline. Shortly after, Sanchez had just gotten out of a staff meeting and had a few minutes for a media interview. There were texts that needed response. It goes on all day.
This week is especially wired as the Gaels, 17-time Nevada state champions, prepare to leave on Wednesday for a trip to Honolulu. The last four titles have come under Sanchez. Bishop Gorman will play three-time Hawaii Open Division state champion Saint Louis in a matchup — or “The Showdown”, as T-shirts tout — at Aloha Stadium on Friday night. The Bishop Gorman-Saint Louis game, along with the Liberty (Nev.)-Mililani contest, is billed as the Aloha Football Classic.
Saint Louis has won a combined 20 state titles and Oahu Prep Bowls. Eighteen of those came with Cal Lee as head coach.
Bishop Gorman, a co-ed Catholic school, is quite familiar with all the attention. The Gaels were unofficial national champions in 2014, ’15 and 16. Currently, the USA Today Super 25 has Saint Louis, now 2-0 overall, at No. 12 with Bishop Gorman at No. 13. The MaxPreps Xcellent 25 has a bigger gap with Saint Louis at No. 10 and Bishop Gorman at No. 15.
While Lee sees little to no benefit in the hype of national rankings, Sanchez goes in a different direction.
“We’re playing a team that’s ranked higher than us, so for us that’s exciting and that’s interesting to our fans. Our players get more fired up for practices,” said Sanchez, who began as an assistant coach in ’08. “I always try to figure out what excites them, and they get excited about rankings. Anything that gets your kids to get excited and play hard, why ignore it if it’s there? It’s so early for rankings, but the kids like that. We still want to focus on playing one game at a time.”
Sanchez and staff have seen plenty of Saint Louis video footage.
“Their quarterback (Jaylen de Laura) and receivers are extremely good. We have a lot of respect for their quarterback. He’s extremely good on his feet and he’s got a heck of an arm. All four receivers are good. The O-line is big, strong and physical. We’ve got our work cut out for us defensively. We have to be able to run the ball with those physical linebackers they have and their D-line. Coach Lee done a great job,” Sanchez said.
Bishop Gorman opened its season last weekend with a 40-7 win over Orem (Utah), which won its 4A state title last year. (Click here for the Bishop Gorman-Orem game video.) It was the first of four nonleague games against out-of-state teams for the Gaels.
The offense features Washington commit Rome Odunze, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound wide receiver.
“He runs a 10.7 100, was second or third in the state. He’s special. A great route runner, high GPA kid, 3.6,” Sanchez said.
Quarterback Micah Bowens, Sanchez noted, has great potential. The comparison of Bowens, who is 6-0, 200 pounds, to Arizona QB Khalil Tate is apt. Tate’s athleticism was on display in a 45-38 loss to Hawaii on Saturday when he nearly scored on a long run before being denied at the 1-yard line as time expired. Bowens started at defensive back for the Gaels as a sophomore.
“Micah is really gifted on his feet. If he doesn’t get rid of the ball right away, he can scramble. That’s a good comparison (to Tate). Micah runs a high 4.4, low 4.5 (40-yard dash),” Sanchez said.
Defensively, Dahlin Mesake, who recently decommitted from Brigham Young, and Ishe Smith are key as Bishop Gorman’s defensive ends. Connor Fryar and Tafao Amataga rotate at nose tackle. Inside linebacker Bryan Certain navigates the defensive unit.
The Gaels won’t leave anyone home. All 64 players are making the trip.
“We’re bringing our whole varsity. Honestly, the biggest thing is that we have good practices before we leave. Yesterday (Monday), today and tomorrow. That’s the most important thing. The game is won or lost already depending on the preparation by Wednesday,” Sanchez said.
There will be recreational time for the Gaels, but not until the game is done.
“The fun part is going out and playing in Aloha Stadium. What a historic place to play, being in Hawaii. Saturday is our free day. They can swim on the beach. The most fun is the game itself and playing a great team like Saint Louis,” Sanchez said.
The sometimes frenetic pace for any educator and coach has its rewards, but usually not until after the season. Football is practically bigger than life at Bishop Gorman, but the four-day stay in the islands will be different and special for the 2019 Gaels. Win or lose, there will be some freedom after the game.
“It’s a grind, but it’s a good job and I still get to do what I wanted to do from when I was a little kid,” Sanchez said, looking forward to his non-coaching hours on Oahu. “When I think of Hawaii, it’s hanging out on the beach on a great day.”
The Gaels will return to Las Vegas on Sunday.
“We’ll come back and practice on Monday,” Sanchez said. “We’ll get ready for Servite (Calif.).”
Gorman 56
Stl. 14
Easy
St. Louis 56
Gorman 0
49-35 StLouis
Lou says STL. 28-BG 45. Why? BG ground game will open it up. Watch BG use option pitch.
STL 45 BG 42
MIL 21 Liberty 42
Lou says Mililouis 12 Liberty 27.
How come I gotta correct you guys all the time. You said St. Louis has 16 combined prep bowl and state championships. St. Louis has won 14 prep bowls and 6 state championships, 20 combined championships not 16.
42 Saint Louis, 28 Bishop Gorman. 28 Mililani, 21 Liberty.
Will it be Mainland or Hawaii referees?
@lou…….mililouis 🤣🤣🤣🤣I’m dead.
BGHS 38. St. Louis 35
LIBERTY 28 Mililani 24
@hawaiian, going be Mini Louis after they play St.John Bosco.
St. Louis wins or loses on how disciplined there play will be. If it’s going to be like there last 2 games, St. Louis loses big. They need to not be selfish in doing stupid personal fouls and keep and eye on the prize.
@Lou
Instead of teasing Mililani how about teasing your own team, The “State Louis Crusaders”
Perfect name for recruiting the WHOLE State!
Who’s Dead now Hawaiian?
Saint Louis NO RECRUIT, the young men like to play for the best Hawaii high school coach of all time, Cal Lee
Where can I get this shirt???
St Louis 42 Gorman 35
Liberty 14 Mililani 0
only because Mililani’s offense wont score. York needs to fire his OC. He’s terrible. i guess when you had a Dillon Gabriel and a Mckenzie Milton, play calling didnt matter cause the qb made plays.
Anyways good luck to both hawaii teams. Represent the 808
🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Ilh
You is CLASSIC 🤣
@ lou how can you say Mililious????. Half of the team is not St Louis players. Maybe one or three players. Most of them are from Mililani. They not the only guys that are play makers on offense and defense. They play as a team. Everyone think Mililani Defense is underrated and only good because of the transfers. I say hell naw…I hope they beat Liberty and beat up everyone else and beat St. Louis so everyone can keep there mouth shut about this and that about Mililani. If I not mistaken they winning games because it’s a team effort and not individuals. Last time I check Defense win games and will see who is overrated.
It’s like Mililani don’t recruit for football and Kahuku don’t recruit for basketball. They just have deep roots in that community!
BBWWAAHHAAHHAAHHA
How about the fact that there’s so many Samoan kids magically popping up in mililani. When I was playing back 15 years ago, mililani did not have all these soles like they do now. Anyone ever thought about that? It don’t matter not anyways they almost lost to Campbell so I guess that’s the best the OIA has this year. Easy season to St. Louis winning. Nobody else can really compete. Punahou would of but they lost their starting qb
Why everyone so negative? I’m happy teams like BSG and Liberty are willing to fly down and provide Hawai’i football an opportunity to showcase their talents. We can bet a lot of college scouts will be watching so all the kids will get the chance to impress.
Lay off the hate and buzzkill. Relax a bit and enjoy the games.
Stl this stl that,,,,,,,,, when stl was offered to play in a national playoffs champion last year they declined.
Somebody tell me why?
No body here talking about that.
Imagine stl playing Mater dei 🤣🤣🤣
H-aving
A-nger
T-owards
E-veryone
R-eaching
S-uccess
HATERS GON HATE!!
LETS GO CRUSADERS!!
True dat. St.L defense was better last year. ???, ahhh, my team ain’t Stl. I have them losing by 2 tds. McKenzie ain’t Tuitele. ALLILH, basketball? Lol, gotta dig deep huh. You do know the coach at Kahuku has produced more D1 products in the last 5 years then all coaches put together. And at the end of the night these “transfers” actually sleep and reside in RR country. Lol.
@JUN, lol. Without Seamalu,Hoohuli,Amina,DeBlake,Kim, other Mililani homeboys would be playing. Tell me I see like 8 juniors from last year missing. Where did they go??? Mystery. Redshirt seniors?
@ all facts Get your facts straight! Saint Louis wasn’t offered to play in a national playoff, they were offered to play in a national exhibition game. Their opponent would have been in the bottom half of the top 25 or even lower. At the time Saint Louis was ranked around #7, what would have been the point, they had nothing to gain. There were other factors that also contributed to the decision. Coach Cal wanted to take the entire roster 90+ players and 20+ staff and Geico would only pay for 75 total. Were you going to pony up the difference? Also, Saint Louis’ season ended a full 4 weeks before this scheduled exhibition which would have hurt the wrestling and basketball programs which Coach Cal didn’t want to do. Finals week was also that week, which I think could have been manipulated if it was actually a playoff, but it wasn’t. Which brings me to my point, IF it was a true playoff with the top teams in the country, Coach Cal and the Crusaders would have been there, NO DOUBT!
@ Lou and how many guys in a football team???? All those guys you mention are not the reason why they are beating up on teams. Their is no way two or three guys will make a difference on the Mililani team. They just playing good team football. About the 8 players I do not know why they are not there to play for Mililani but I can tell you this their second team on defense and offense is as good as the first team. They all from Mililani and not from St Louis. The second Team played more than the starters this past two games which led to two shut out games.
@Obama
H-Having
A-Aggressions
T-Toward
E-Excessive
R-Recruiters
S-“State Louis Crusaders”
That Sums it up!!!!
@ recruited not rooted
Buddy my cousin plays for mater dei and that’s who they were goin to play first. Mater dei was # 1 and stl #4. But stl very wisely declined. All facts buddy.
Recruited not Rooted.
You wrote St. Louis would have nothing to gain by playing teams ranked lower than them.
Then why hasnt St. Louis made an attempt to scheduled to play a top 5 team these past few years? Mater dei and St. John Bosco play the best year after year. They played Narbonne who ain’t even competing in california elite division.
Mililani has guts playing St. John Bosco #3 in the nation.
I don’t see StLouis playing teams in the top 5.
@All facts
Get your facts straight, St Frances (Baltimore MD) played Lee County HS (Leesburg GA). In the other game it was East Side Catholic HS (Sammamish WA) vs Centennial HS (Peoria AZ). Mater Dai did not even play in the damm thing. So All Facts what are you saying ? Mater Dai was offered and they dropped out too?
Having the St Louis-Bishop Gorman, and Liberty-Mililani games on the same night at different locations is a travesty, depriving true football fans a chance to see both highly publicized games.
“The Gaels were unofficial national champions in 2014, ’15 and 16”? Mr. Honda, I’ll correct you in a humble way. Bishop Gorman in 2014, 2015, & 2016 was LEGITIMATELY ranked #1 in the country, not UNOFFICIALLY. why? They played ranked teams from #1 to #5 around the NATION, not just In-State play (CA, FL, HI, UT, TX) & BEAT them in their own backyards.
@get it stright (straight)
You do not now what you are talking about.
You can’t even spell (straight ) correctly. And you trying to tell me different.
@All facts
Just because your cousin plays for Mater Dai You Know Whats going on? Thanks for the spell check. How could Mater Dai Play when the state of California does not have an agreement with Geico championship series. Currently the AIA (Arizona), FHSAA (Florida), GHSH (Georgia), HSSAA (Hawaii), MIAA (Maryland), NIAA (Nevada), UHSAA (Utah) and WIAA (Washington) have approved their member schools to participate in Geico state champions bowl series. But no worries your cousin knows better.
@ all facts Yeah sure! And I have a friend of a friend who has a friend who’s son plays for Mater Dei and there wasn’t chance in hell that they would play Saint Louis in the Geico Bowl. They finished their season #1 in the country after beating then #1 SJB and top 15 DeLasalle in California’s state championship. Their body of work spoke for itself, they had nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing Saint Louis. Was never going to happen. Get your facts straight, we don’t want hearsay.
As for Saint Louis not scheduling a Mater Dei or SJB, it’s not as easy as it sounds and they have played them both in the last decade. Saint Louis plays nine straight weeks beginning with Kapolei on Aug 15. Their only open date is tmrw night and they scheduled a top 15 BG. No team is going to play Saint Louis in early August cuz their seasons start later and nobody will play at the end heading into the playoffs so BG is a great get by Coach Cal. Yeah they may not be a Mater Dei, SJB or IMG but I think 5-15 is pretty interchangeable. Should be a great measuring stick for the program and Hawaii football in general. Come out to the stadium and support our local boys. For all the haters, we know no matter what Coach Cal does won’t be good enough. If he scheduled MD or SJB at the stadium it still wouldn’t be good enough cuz they didn’t go on the road.
STL is cowards. They fear playing top mainland teams. Narbonne had all it’s D1 transfers sitting out last year due to eligibility rules. Like 7-8 guys. And even with them, they play in the LA City Section, which is equivalent of Southern Section D4. Try playing a D1 team from the SS. Not even the top 2 teams in SJB or Mater Dei. Hell, even Mission Viejo who visits HI all the time. They’re a legit SS D1 program.
Cen10 vs St Louis would be a great game
The speed of Cen10 vs the size of St Louis
Mater Dei and St. John Bosco are still playing out of state games in September. Mater Dei is playing a team from Maryland on September 14 and St. John Bosco is flying out here to play Mililani. Now why would a team like Mater Dei or Bosco avoid playing the St. Louis Crusaders? Hmmm or maybe it’s St. Louis avoiding mater dei and bosco?
Like I said, our only open date is August 30th and we filled it with a great team. That’s Great that MD and SJB have an open date on September, however we do not. Last I checked you don’t play 2 games in one day. Saint Louis doesn’t make the regular season schedule, I’m sure that’s done by the ILH/OIA administrators.
So much crybabies and hate towards St.Louis,grown adults acting like kids,they win,Gorman has a down year,they lose,St Louis not as good as they thought they were,recruiting,too much excuses.Let’s go Crusaders and Trojans,808 vs everybody,RRFL
Well next year coach cal can schedule mater dei and bosco.Why only play one non league game. St.Louis dont need a bye week with all the players and talent they have on the roster. Shoot the starters only play one half against teams other than kahuku, Mililani, punahou and kamehameha.
The schedule makers will work with StL to have them play teams from the mainland. This i know for a fact. Simply, because it happened before with the team i coach.
@808great…adjusting your Waipahu jackrabbits schedule to fit in the kapahulu raiders is not the same thing
@ Gil, Gorman has had some good teams but lets be real they beat a 1 loss St. Thomas Aquinas in triple overtime at home. BG would have lost by 2 TD’s in South Florida. BTW STA lost to a public school Miami Washington that year. Seffner Armwood another public Florida school beat BG 20-17. In 2013 Miami Washington spanked BG 28-12. What about 2017 when Miami central again a public school the running backs had a field day against BG and won24-20. Davin Cook’s younger brother had 199 yards. IMHO Lakeland Florida should be # 1 with the Clemson commit RB that’s arguably the best in the nation and a 10.3 100 meter receiver. STA should be #2 with over 30 3 star and higher on the roster, I had the highest 1 game rushing yards for Orange County at the 2nd biggest high school in the state and was fortunate enough to see players from Florida. Bishop Gorman has a fine program as does St. Louis so good luck to both but I want St. Louis to win because I have been a part of Hawaii football for some time now.
Mahalo for all the ALOHA! Lol! #WeBeatGorman. Score could have been 42-13…..Had a few bad breaks and lack of discipline (penalties)…Hater/Supporters – your keiki..from this place/living in this place went 3-0 against the teams from the continent…#WeBeatGorman #Next