Trips Offer More Than Game Experience

By MARTIN HENDERSON

Aug. 30, 1996 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Capistrano Valley and Sunny Hills are among this year’s local teams that have discovered the value of the extended field trip, a football game that winds up being a weeklong journey into cultural diversity.

Nine Orange County football teams have played in Hawaii since 1982, when Edison traveled to beat Honolulu Punahou, 44-13.

That tradition continues tonight when Capistrano Valley plays at Nanakuli and Sunny Hills plays at Kailua to kick off the prep football season.

“I think it’s important for a young man to stretch his cultural awareness,” Capistrano Valley Coach Dave Brown said.

But not all the trips wind up on the islands. There have been at least nine trips the last 10 years to other distant locales, including two to Canada--both by Sunny Hills, which played 12 a side on a 110-yard field using Canadian rules.

Aliso Niguel leaves Monday for Hilliard, Ohio. The Wolverines’ trip includes a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, where they will have the place to themselves for six hours. The team will stay on the Ohio State campus in Columbus, have access to the Buckeyes’ practice facilities, and have seats to the Ohio State-Rice game.

Though not vacations, the trips provide a travel opportunity for players who might not otherwise have the chance--or the money.

San Clemente Coach Mark McElroy was touched by the way some of his players helped raise money for last year’s trip to Hawaii, his first, which ended in a 20-6 loss to Punahou.

“There was a lot of selflessness and teamwork in the process to go,” McElroy said. “I felt not only that year of raising the money, but also the actual trip itself, brought our kids extremely close together to the point where we probably overachieved because of our closeness.”

San Clemente was ranked fourth in Orange County. Punahou, one of Hawaii’s six private schools that play football, was ranked third in the Hawaii State Athletic Assn. and was ranked nationally for four weeks.

Sunny Hills is taking its fourth trip in Tim Devaney’s 17 years as head coach. He, too, has noticed differences between teams that go and teams that don’t.

“The interaction between the team changes a little bit,” he said. “It’s not the same superficial thing because they’re together 24 hours a day. . . . It binds the team together a lot more than normal football would.”

A school must get school board approval, league approval, then section approval--in that order--to make a trip.

Southern Section rules limit “extended field trips” to one every three years but rules vary from section to section. San Diego Morse, for example, has played in Hawaii the last 12 years.

Games can be arranged any number of ways: a call to the governing section, a tournament director, a coach’s friend.

Aliso Niguel Coach Joe Wood, whose school is beginning its fourth year and third full varsity season, was a defensive coordinator at Capistrano Valley in 1990 when it played Honolulu Damien.

“I always said that if I ever was in a situation and could fund my own trip, I would like to go back East,” Wood said. “We’re trying to establish football tradition here and we want to go someplace that had that kind of tradition.”

Ohio came to the fore largely because several school boosters are from there. Hilliard emerged as the preferred opponent because of its tradition, its proximity to a college power and the Hall of Fame. It also has about the same enrollment as Aliso Niguel.

And in a spirit of cooperation, Aliso Niguel is already establishing a fund to help Hilliard come to play at Aliso Niguel.

A trip is a massive undertaking, “an organizational test of your patience,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t undertake this unless we had a good booster club.”

Capistrano Valley, taking 90 players and 60 adults, has been working on the trip for about a year. Sunny Hills has worked on its trip since December: “If you have a travel agent who’s good,” Devaney said, “you can get things done.”

The cost to the Lancers is about $600 per student. There are 45 varsity players, no cheerleaders. Ten coaches, trainers and an equipment man are going, along with 10-20 parents who are not staying at the team’s hotel.

After getting the OK from parents, it’s six months (or more) of car washes and other fund-raisers.

Aliso Niguel is taking 70-75 players, about 120 people total, at a cost between $650-$800--which covers everything.

The payoff for six months of fund-raising? “Our kids will be exposed to a great campus, the Ohio State players and coaches,” said Wood, who has scheduled time for his team to watch the Buckeyes practice. Not to mention the Hall of Fame, a picnic, swimming, . . .

The Shawn Akina Classic, held in honor of the former Punahou quarterback who died of heart failure in 1986 (at age 19) while a freshman at Utah, has been instrumental in putting Hawaii prep football on the map. Mainland teams traveled to Hawaii and provided a showcase event.

“What California teams are beginning to find out is this is the best-kept secret in the country as far as football is concerned, and there’s a genuine respect between the two states for the quality of football that exists in both states,” said Dan Morrison, who coached at Santa Monica for seven years and has been at Punahou as an assistant or head coach since 1981.

Morrison said one of his defensive tackles from last year, Jason Ching (6-4, 280), appeared on 14 All-American teams, was offered 15 trips and, sight unseen, a scholarship to Notre Dame (which he took) as a result of being showcased in that fashion.

“More and more the Polynesian kids are finding their way into the major college programs on the mainland,” Morrison said, “and that’s in part due to the California teams that come here, and the people who come and see them.”

The Shawn Akina Classic isn’t at the Aloha Bowl this year because of a scheduling conflict, according to Skip Akina, Shawn’s brother.

“The past four or five years,” Akina said, “the [Oahu Interscholastic Federation] let us use it, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to use it again next year.”

So unlike the last two years, when the Akina Classic was six games, it’s only one--Del Mar Torrey Pines at Punahou.

The risks associated with these field trips aren’t lost on the adults who are responsible. All students must sign a contract stating they will follow the rules--no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, stealing, breaking property. . . “And they know if they violate it,” Brown said, “they’re on the first flight home. And the parents know it too.”

None of the coaches expect problems.

“We’ve been fortunate or lucky, who knows,” Devaney said. “Going in, you expect your kids to have some common sense, and you drill that into their heads, that they need to use an extensive amount of common sense on these trips.”

San Clemente’s McElroy sent a player home last year after the first day.

“We had a great itinerary,” McElroy said. “There was really only one night the kids could potentially get in trouble--and the kid actually got in trouble [on a different night].”

The next morning? Aloha.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Long Journeys

Orange County prep football teams have compiled a 19-5-1 record in games played out of state since 1982.

1995

Honolulu Punahou, 20, San Clemente 6

Servite 51, Chicago De La Salle 6

1994

Marina 34, Honolulu Damien 0

Southern California Christian 42, Maui Kaahumanu Ho 0

1993

Honolulu St. Louis 13, Capistrano Valley 7