Radford first-year coach Lon Passos addresses his team after a practice. CJ Caraang | SL

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16061439_HU2A0060_RADFORD_PRACTICE_CJCARAANG.jpg - CJ Caraang | SL

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Longtime Radford assistant coach Lon Passos will have his hands full in his first year as the varsity head coach. 

After going undefeated and winning the Division II state championship in 2015, the Rams are back in Division I for the first time in five years. 

"It starts with commitment to practice with these kids," said Passos. "We have a very young team. We lost a lot of seniors, a lot of starters. We're also moving up to (Division I) so now it's much harder. As coaches we have to work to get them prepared." 

Passos helped coach the offensive line for nearly two decades years before succeeding coach Fred Salanoa, who spent 13 years at the helm.

"He set up a good program, I'm just trying to upkeep it," Passos said on Salanoa.

Incorporating new players into the program will be key to the team's success this year.

"We're just trying to be one team, trying to be one family," said Passos. "We have a lot of new players. There's guys coming up from the junior varsity and guys who's never played in our program before coming in, some that are military, some that just decided to play football now. We're just trying to fit everybody all together right now." 

The Rams lost most of their offensive talent to graduation and saw two defensive studs transfer to mainland schools, but will have a handful of returnees to rely on in the upcoming season. Strong safety Jonah Soakai and cornerback Sipa Leafa, a First Team Division II All-Hawaii selection, will help patrol the secondary while Second Team All-Hawaii OL Talatonu Von-Koppel gives Radford a four-year starter in the trenches.

Throughout the summer practices, Passos has his entire team working on the two basic fundamental skills of football: tackling and blocking. 

"We might have some key players going both ways, but my thinking is offense and defense both have to know how to tackle," he said. "On offense, if we turn over the ball, we have to tackle. If we don't teach the kids how to tackle, if they tackle wrong, they can get hurt.

"Tomorrow we're going to switch it to where the whole team is going to block. When defense gets turnovers, they have to learn how to block. Special teams have to learn how to block as well."

Passos added that he wants to be able to run the ball more than the team did in previous years.

"I'm an offensive line guy, so I kind of want to run the ball too, but I'm just going to see what we can do. If we can throw the ball then let's throw the ball, but I want to try to be balanced. I don't want to be all passing. I want to be able to do both."

Radford will host Iolani on Aug. 6 in a non-league contest before beginning the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I regular season. Barring any delay in the renovation of their field, the Rams' matchup with the Raiders will be the team's first game at John Velasco Stadium in over three years.