Humility for life

Football is temporary in an athlete's life. Humility is forever.

In a sports culture that spends more time, money and attention on awards and rewards rather than the basic fundamentals - academics and sportsmanship - I give kudos to Reggie Torres.

Kahuku's football and wrestling coach asks a little more of his student-athletes because he thinks ahead. He knows that current standards don't promote preparation for college. He's a teacher first, and he wants his student-athletes to be prepared for higher expectations. College. He works with the kids and their parents, and no matter what, it's still on the student-athletes to stand up for themselves and study hard. Making a 2.0 GPA without an F ... that's a reasonable, fair expectation.

Most of us know that Coach Torres has a strong background in wrestling and judo. He is big on humility and sportsmanship, which is why he once told me he prefers the basic Kahuku slogans with the T-shirt designs rather than the ones that put weight on a territorial, us-against-the-world mentality. The latter is good marketing. The former is down to earth.

During Coach Siuaki Livai's time, a lot of slogans rose up to make money on T-shirts. But I can see Coach Torres' points and why he likes to keep things simple and grounded. There's room for both mentalities. I prefer Coach Torres' approach, of course. Humility is timeless.

Regardless of school and community, humility doesn't cheer when an opposing player is cleaned out before catching a punt. Humility doesn't laugh when an opposing player gets hurt. Humility brushes off negativity and taunting. Humility ignores that stuff and hustles back to the huddle.

Problems will happen. Fortunately, we have a lot of excellent coaches in the OIA and ILH who correct them when they arise.