It didn't take Waianae athletic director Glenn Tokunaga long to find his man.

Tokunaga announced on Wednesday via e-mail that the school selected Walter Young as its new varsity football coach.

Young, a 1998 graduate of Waianae who played offensive line under then-coach Leo Taaca, has coached football for 13 years at his alma mater, where he is a math teacher. He played collegiate at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash.

"I think it's a great opportunity and I just want to give back to the community, which is why I came back after I graduated from college," Young said when reached by phone Thursday. "I appreciate that the people at the school and community gave me the opportunity to become head coach."

After completing college, Young returned to Waianae in 2003 and was a varsity assistant before moving to the JV staff for the next two seasons. He returned to the varsity in 2006, spending six seasons as the offensive line coach, and has been the JV head coach the past two years.

The Seariders' JV team won the OIA Red last season under Young.

"To see the success on the varsity like we have on the JV, we have to make sure the program runs the same so we're ahead of the game instead of trying to reteach," Young said. "That's one thing we're going to try do. The other thing is preach to the kids that their extra work they put in is what's going to take us over the top."

However, Young warns that success "will take time."

"With the support of the athletic department, we want to try and change the culture to make the kids more student-athletes and get the community to understand that it's not just about winning, but about where they end up and giving them the opportunity to excel beyond high school on and off the field," Young said.

Young said he plans to meet with his coaching staff to evaluate player personnel before deciding on offensive and defensive schemes, but still expects the Seariders to feature a run-heavy offense.

"There's a lot of pride and tradition at Waianae and I want to carry that on," Young said. "For now though, we're taking it day-by-day, but the expectation is to groom these kids to be better student-athletes and everything else will take its course."

Young replaces longtime coach Dan Matsumoto, who resigned last month after 14 seasons.