Damien will visit Kozuki Stadium Friday afternoon to face No. 12 Iolani in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu opener for both teams. Kickoff between the Monarchs and Raiders is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. CJ Caraang | SL

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It hasn't exactly been ‘business as usual' lately for the Damien football team — and that's especially true in the case of interim coach Anthony "Bones" Tuitele.

Tuitele, a 2009 Damien graduate and physical education teacher at the school, has been tasked with stepping in for Eddie Klaneski, who resigned as both football coach and athletic director earlier this month.

But for Tuitele, going from offensive coordinator to head coach isn't the biggest adjustment in his life these days. It's a far second, in fact, to the one that came on Aug. 14 with the birth of his first child, daughter, Mahina.

"Not much sleep since then," laughed Tuitele. But he has found ways to adapt.

"I'm up late watching film, but if she gets up because she's hungry or needs to be changed, it's all about her," he said.

Indeed, Tuitele is rolling with the punches — and so is his football team.

"In life, that's what happens and especially during these times, we've always gotta move forward," Tuitele said. "There's always changes happening and we cannot harp on it, we just gotta move forward and stick together and do it together."

Klaneski, a 1993 Damien alumnus, left his alma mater as the winningest coach in school history with a career record of 47-43 over nine seasons, including three league championships and a runner-up finish in the 2017 Division I state tournament.

"It was a big loss for us when he left," said Tuitele, who played under Klaneski — then an assistant — and later coached beside him.

"He and I both work at the school and we were always talking, but now not seeing him at the school, it's going to be different. Just seeing him every day — he gives you something to believe in — just his presence brought that to the boys and even me, too," Tuitele expressed.

He is now hoping to bring that same presence to his players and students.

"I looked at it as it was gonna hurt, because a lot of them had to have been thinking, ‘man, another change?,' but the fact is, and coach K and I we're talking about it, it's not like I don't have a relationship with these guys, especially these seniors," Tuitele said.

One of Tuitele's first orders of business after being tabbed as interim coach about a week ago was relaying his expectations to those seniors.

"I called upon them to get the ball rolling and I told them that, ‘I'm gonna need you guys more than ever and I'm gonna count on you guys.' They're doing alright now, getting used to the way I do things," Tuitele said.

While there is a lot of continuity within the coaching transition, Tuitele is still finding that there are bumps in the road.

"I was telling my defensive coaches that, ‘You gotta realize that these kids only heard one voice on the defensive side and that was (Klaneski), so now you gotta speak up and these kids gotta have a feeling for you,' " Tuitele explained.

He went on, " ‘They always had a feeling for what coach K would do, he would coach them up, and it will take time, but they have to have a feeling for you guys now.' "

Tuitele was also the JV boys basketball coach for two seasons. He began coaching football on the intermediate staff, but stuck around to help out with the varsity season that year and he credits that experience with being introduced to some influential figures in his coaching journey.

"I just learned from the varsity coaches," said Tuitele, who is in his sixth year as a teacher at Damien. He was eventually groomed by the rest of the longtime coaches, including Klaneski, to eventually take over the program that he was once the starting quarterback of.

"I didn't think it was coming any time soon; I thought (Klaneski) would be like a coach Wendell (Look) and be around for a long time," Tuitele said of the venerable Iolani coach. "But I guess that's why they always prepared me and harped on me and expected a lot out of me."

Aside from Klaneski, Tuitele pointed out fellow assistants Jay Kahanui, Mako Meyers, Lefa Lauti and Brian Ah Yat for playing impactful roles on his coaching journey.

"They taught me everything," Tuitele said. "They treated me like I was their son; they would yell at me like I was their son, like I was a player, to get my act ready, but I didn't think it was coming this soon."

Tuitele's first game as head coach will take place this Friday, when Damien visits Kozuki Stadium for an afternoon game against No. 12 Iolani to open the Interscholastic League of Honolulu season.

Across the way from Tuitele at Eddie Hamada Track and Field will be Look, the dean of coaches in the ILH — and the second-longest tenured active coach in the state behind Lahainaluna co-coach Robert Watson (who begins his 32nd season this fall).

Look remembers Tuitele as a player.

"He was the quarterback when Kealoha (Pilares) was playing," Look recites. "(Damien) had some pretty good teams back then; they were good, man. I think that year they had about nine guys go to D1 schools."

In addition to being Iolani's football coach, Look is also the ILH football coordinator. He's certainly seen a lot over the course of his 28-plus years as coach of his alma mater and expressed empathy for the Monarchs' situation.

"It's tough whenever you lose anybody at that last minute kind of a situation, but you get put in those situations and this kind of adversity brings a team closer together, makes them focus a little bit more and makes them a little tougher mentally, because they lost their leader and they gotta come together even moreso now, but sometimes you can turn a bad, negative situation into a really positive one if you do that," Look dissected.

In the aftermath of Klaneski's departure, Looks sees an opportunity for tremendous growth for Damien under Tuitele's guidance.

"It's going to test the character of the team," he said. "Eddie laid a solid foundation for them, but they were always a tough, scrappy team so I don't expect anything less."

Both coaches said early in the week — Tuitele on Monday and Look on Tuesday — that the fact that it's finally game week is a bit surreal.

"Our kids, I think, the reality of it all hasn't hit them yet," Look said. "We've been doing this (practicing) for so long — some of them have been doing it from before October and others since February — and so the reality of playing a game hasn't hit yet."

Tuitele said it's much the same feeling amongst his players.

"I think they're kind of anxious. They're still like, ‘Are we really playing, coach?,' " he chuckled. "They're trying not to get their hopes up because of how many times things got canceled already, but they're excited — they just don't want to get their feelings too high — but overall, everything is good, especially with the transition with me and coach K."

Both teams were able to conduct controlled scrimmages back in the final weekend of July (Iolani against Radford and Waianae and Damien against Kalani and Farrington), but nothing against other teams since.

"It was a good two days of scrimmages for us and we got to see a lot from our kids, what we have to continue to work on and what kind of team that we have," said Tuitele, who also got a chance to review footage of the Raiders' scrimmage with Radford.

"Iolani is Iolani: disciplined, fundamental and they're gonna do their job, they're gonna execute and they're gonna come hard; no matter how small they are, they're gonna come and punch you in the mouth," Tuitele said.

Limiting the Raiders' big plays on offense, especially those on third downs, will be pivotal for the Monarchs defensively, he added.

"Their key thing is winning on third downs. If they're winning on third downs, they're executing well, so our defense needs to get off the field on third downs and offensively, we've gotta take what the defense gives us," Tuitele said.

Jensen Tanele, a 5-foot-7, 190-pound sophomore, will be thrust into the role of starting quarterback this fall.

"If he puts his stamp on the game, then we'll be fine," Tuitele said. "At the same time, as a unit we just gotta complete balls, hold on to the ball, not turn it over and execute and win on first down."

Kickoff between the Monarchs and Raiders is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. Fan attendance is not permitted.

Note: Look said that he was initially worried that Monday's announcement by City and County of Honolulu mayor Rick Blangiardi to cancel large gatherings on Oahu for the next four weeks would affect prep football, but he said that he was notified that that would not be the case. "I thought, 'Oh no, here we go again,' " he said. "But we're not having fans, so I guess that saved us, but I was worried."