HONOLULU — On a Friday night in August, the drizzle blew down from the Kapalama hills and onto the field at Skippa Diaz Stadium, where Mike Lafaele stood after a Farrington football victory.
Some 20 years earlier, there was no artificial turf on that spot under his feet. There was no stadium on Farrington's Kalihi campus. Instead, there were bus rides to Roosevelt, where the Governors would play their home games.
One of the first things that Lafaele, the first-year coach of his alma mater, tried to impart to the Govs players in his new role was how special it was to have a place to call their own. Kalihi’s own.
“I shared with them, 'guys, we didn’t have this, man. This is this is beautiful to have,'” said Lafaele, a 2003 Farrington graduate who went on to excel at Hawaii as a defensive tackle. He was a team leader on the 2007 Sugar Bowl team that went 12-0 in the regular season.
Lafaele succeeded Daniel Sanchez in the offseason after assisting with the Govs during their resurgent 2023 campaign that included an appearance in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I championship game.
Farrington built on it in August with lopsided wins over Kapaa, Tafuna of American Samoa and Rancho Mirage (Calif.). It was the Govs’ first 3-0 start since 2015, when they won their first five.
After a tough 24-7 loss to Saint Louis on Aug. 30 – the game was tied at halftime – the Govs are ready for the games that really matter. After two years spent down in D-I, they are back in their customary position in the Open Division.
The first two tests are Advanced Placement-level. Farrington opens in Ewa Beach against a title contender in Campbell, led by quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The next week, they face three-time defending state champ Kahuku on the North Shore.
That status of senior running back Kingsten Samuelu could be key. Samuelu, who has six rushing touchdowns on the season, sat out against the Crusaders.
Lafafele brought in two former UH teammates on the offensive side of the ball, Nate Ilaoa and Dane Uperesa, to join his staff and help establish a more balanced offense from 2023's power running attack. Donny Faavi has thrown six touchdown passes and has completed 60% of his passes thus far.
“I remember when we played, we hadn’t talked about this stuff,” Lafaele said. “We always talked about just having fun with the boys. But to coach young men, teach them about life together as a coaching staff? That's something special for me.”
Lafaele got into high school coaching for his son, Anelu, who played at Saint Louis and Farrington and is now at Wisconsin. Lafaele spent four years assisting in Wendell Look’s program at Iolani and another four under brothers Cal and Ron Lee at Saint Louis before joining Sanchez's staff at Farrington.
When Sanchez decided to step down after a 7-4 season, one win shy of the program's first OIA title since 1990, Lafaele was the logical candidate to succeed him.
Senior receiver Chansen Smith said that the Govs’ staff takes being role models seriously.
“I love Coach Mike. He always wants to give back to community, give back to us,” Smith said after the Aug. 16 game against Tafuna, in which he returned a kickoff for a touchdown. “He’s all about the community. He cares about everybody.”
Lafaele is confident in the Xs and Os and is steadily adjusting to the peaks and valleys of head coaching; a lapse in focus late against Tafuna allowed the school from American Samoa to score and recover an onside kick. After a call went against the Govs, he threw up his arms in frustration. Later, he pointed at himself for not keeping the players engaged late in the game.
But he could sense he had a good group to work with when he took over, and not just when it came to on-field skill.
“They love each other. I think that's gonna be the key,” he said. “And being on the (2007 WAC) championship team myself, that's the number one thing that got us the distance.”
Rebuilding community support will be key, he acknowledged.
“It’s about finding the next guy out of Kalihi, the next Vince Manuwai, Lance Samuseva,” Lafaele said. “Those guys coming up really helped change communities.”
In reply to an observer’s comment that the Skippa Diaz stands were populated, but far from packed for the game, Lafaele smiled.
“Winning solves a lot of problems,” he said.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.