The start of the football season is just 10 weeks away and many teams are already hitting the ground running. A trip to Salt Lake late Thursday afternoon allowed me to catch up with Moanalua’s new coach Jason Cauley. 

“I can’t explain the feeling, it’s great,” Cauley said on the hire. “You come out here with this great group of guys, and this great group of coaches right here. You get your chance to run a program the way you see (fit) to run a program. It’s a dream come true. It’s a blessing, it really is.”

Cauley is from Mobile, Ala., and has been around the game of football ever since the age of four. After he graduated from high school, Cauley went on to play at Mississippi College before transferring to the University of West Alabama. In lieu of the events of 9/11, Cauley decided to enlist in the Army.

Following his time in the service, Cauley returned back home to work as an assistant under his brother’s 7A school in Alabama. A notable player that he worked with during that time period is new Tampa Bay Buccaneer receiver Solomon Patton. Cauley spent four years with his brother’s team before coming over to Hawaii to become the offensive coordinator for Moanalua and then head coach Arnold Martinez in 2011, and also Kapolei and coach Darren Hernandez for the past two years.

Before his hiring as head coach of Moanalua, Cauley was actually going to go back home to become the offensive coordinator for his brother’s team.

“I actually was offered a job by my brother back home,” said Cauley. “He offered me the job being the offensive coordinator over there, and I took it, I went ahead and said yes. I was ready to tell coach Hernandez, ‘hey you know I’m going back home, I’m sorry. My wife was getting ready to go back home, we miss our family and we got two little ones.”

But some thing, or some feeling, convinced him otherwise.

“I don’t know what made me stay,” explained Cauley. “Honestly I just thought about it and my wife is about to graduate (with a) culinary degree. I said ‘baby, we’re going to stay here, we’re going to stay here another year. I’m going to tell my brother we’re not going to go’, and it hurt, it really did because I would do anything to help out my brother start up his program, I was so excited about it, but I don’t know what it was that told me to stay. After I had decided to stay, two weeks later coach Arnold stepped down.” 

An opportunity opened up that allowed Cauley to throw his hat in the ring and become Moanalua’s 10th football coach in its program’s history.

“After coach Martinez stepped down, I saw this as a shot to come back to where I think I belong,” said Cauley. “I’ve looked at this people as family and always have ever since I’ve left here. I’ve missed it. 

“I still have a lot of friends over here, I had a lot of support from faculty and parents and players themselves. It just so turned out that athletic director (Joel) Kawachi and (Principal) Robin Martin believed in me and gave me a shot and I’m so thankful they did. Like I said, it’s a dream come true.”

The mood of practice on Thursday showed that Cauley would be grabbing the bull by the horns. Despite it only being day three of official practices, Thursday’s session was fast-paced and filled with high energy. That approach should bode well with Cauley’s no-huddle spread offense. 

So what should we expect from the Moanalua offense this year? Will it be the pass-heavy team we’ve seen in year’s past, or will it be run-oriented attack that we’ve seen Kapolei depend on to move the chains? 

Defenses will be left wondering the same thing when they face Na Menehune this year.

“That’s the great thing about this offense,” gleamed Cauley. “If you have the passing personnel, you can pass; if you have the running personnel, you can run. It’s always great to be balanced. There’s so much you can do with this offense formation wise and scheme wise, I love it.”

Cauley also hopes to instill some good values in his squad.

“They have to understand first that they are sons and daughters. Second, they are students, and third an athlete. I always tell them don’t do anything that would look bad on your family name,” said Cauley. “I try to tell the kids to act with class mainly. We want to be a class act. Encourage the person beside you, and also the person across from you to.” 

All though he is entering his first head coaching gig, as well as inheriting a 3-6 team, Cauley sees great potential in the group that he has now. 

“I know a lot of people are expecting us to have a rebuilding year, but I got a lot of hope for this team. These kids come out and work, they run their butts off in every single rep that they do. They’d stay out here running all day, I’ll leave and they’re still out on the field working.” 

Moanalua will scrimmage against Kahuku and Pearl City before playing its first official game against Waiakea at Wong Stadium. Na Menehune will play Waianae to begin the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Division regular season.