 I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the highly respected head coach of the Kahuku football team. He is Coach Sterling Carvalho and today we are going Beyond State Championships. Hey Coach Sterling, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Aloha Rusty coach, thank you for having me on this show. It's a privilege to be here and obviously it's a privilege to even be talking with you and had a conversation prior. Your resume speaks for itself and all us coaches we wish we could have 22 consecutive state titles so it's great to be on this show and it's great to know you as a coach. Well Coach Sterling, it's my privilege and honor to really know you and you've been creating such an incredible culture of excellence with your team but before we talk about that can you share about where you grew up at and what schools you attended? Well I grew up on the island of Kauai, born and raised on that island, attended Kauai High School. I'm a red raider so literally I can say I'm a red raider for life currently. After I graduated high school I came to BYU Hawaii out here on the north shore of Oahu but during that time I also took a two-year break and I served a mission for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So I went to upstate New York primarily in the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara, Calmyra and I was able to learn the language of Spanish. I spoke Spanish for a couple of years, taught the gospel for two years in a Spanish language so like I said I'm very fortunate to have gained a second language and then I returned back from my mission and graduated with my bachelor's of science in math education at Pringam Young University of Kauai and then I went on to the University of Kauai at Manoa and got my master's in education administration for higher education. After that I also got a continued on and got more studies to help me in my education and so I'm just grateful that I was able to have the means and the desire and the health and strength to further my education and continue in that course. Wow, that's great to hear and coach what kind of various coaching jobs did you have before becoming head coach at Kahuku? Well, on my last year of my bachelor's I did my student teaching at Wailua High School under Dennis Katayama so when I was done teaching and graduated he moved to become the registrar and so the school really liked me when I was doing my internship there and this is you know Sterling this job is yours you want to step right in and I was grateful like great I'll do it I don't have to go through the whole interview process I love it out on the North Shore I love Wailua because it reminded me of of Kauai right a plantation type of community hardworking folks humble students so I started there and when I started teaching Chico Capello was the head coach of Wailua at that time so he brought me on as a defensive coordinator so I actually started on a defensive side of the ball and then he retired so I was very fortunate to also coach under Lincoln Barrett so Lincoln Barrett there at Wailua and I became a offensive coordinator there as well so I was there for about five years at Wailua High School as an offensive and a defensive coordinator and that was probably one of the best things that that ever happened to me because we lost more than we won and you had to be creative you didn't have the numbers um you had a lot of raw players at that time so it helped me become a creative player thinking more than just the X's and O's and and helping players within that community not only succeeding football but in school and and their personal life so I was very fortunate to start at Wailua then in 2006 coach Reggie Torres became the head coach at Kahuku High School and so he brought me on board at that time to first be a running backscope and then doing that same year became the running backscopes the offensive coordinator had a new job at OCCC now the head coach at Campbell Darren Johnson so I was a co-offensive coordinator with coach Reggie at that time and ever since that became the offensive coordinator for Kahuku all the way up to 2013 um no 2015 then I became the JV head coach at that time because I was going to be done with with um football and just coach golf at Kahuku but one week prior to the start of the season at that time the JV staff you know walked away and so my athletic director called me and she said Sterling I need you to put a staff together in a week and be ready for the first game and so I was very fortunate that a lot of people here want to coach football here at Kahuku so I put together a staff and for the next three years we were very successful at the JV level and then finally you know the job opened up at Kahuku to be the varsity head coach I applied the reason why I applied is it's always about the players you know I had those players who I coached doing a JV so it's an easy transition and at that time there's a lot of turnover rate of coaches coming in for a year or two and then leaving so I just wanted stability not just for our players but for our community and so I've been the head coach ever since going on to my fourth year um some people say the fifth year but I don't count the COVID year so moving on to my fourth year coaching here at Kahuku well it's amazing hearing your journey to where you are now and the impact that you're making not just on the players but on the community and coach Sterling how would you describe your coaching style well I'm uh I like to say I'm a really hands-on coach and I live with the players I run with the players um if I need them to show them a pattern I'll get out there and run it because I I really if I demand a lot from my players I demand a lot from myself not just coaching them and yelling but also showing them and and just rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty with them so I'm a very hands-on type of coach and and I like to lead by example no I love hearing that too and you've definitely created a culture of excellence I mean I would say a superior culture of excellence with your Kahuku team and can you tell me about what that culture looks like well when I became the head coach I I built my program on three pillars right education character and football because Rusty coach you know as a high school coach the first thing a lot of these college coaches come in and ask about a certain player is how is their education what's their grade point average so I needed to make sure my students and players understood that that education is actually first and foremost for you to be successful in the next level so I really make sure that education is a big part of our program and then the character second thing a lot of college coaches ask is how's the character of this player is he a team player right so I want to make sure that our players are successful not just on the field but off the field you know by default their mentors here at Kahuku their idols when when we go to camps and a lot of these people ask oh who's your favorite player a lot of kids from our community they don't talk about NFL players or college players they say oh the karkar kai kai corvalio right they say the Afunga Wailies but it's the all our Kahuku players before so we want to make sure my standard is built upon that education and character and obviously football it comes naturally to a lot of our players here on our team so that is how my pillars and my program is run I love hearing your pillars coach and you've obviously had had a lot of success already I mean winning state championships now why why are you a successful coach well I'm a successful coach because I'm very fortunate to have great athletes parents and a community right um a lot of people think that we have big mean boys right players but they're actually great listeners they're actually great sons they actually are great brothers and so when we tell them to do something it's yes coach right and when we ask the parents things they say yes coach so they trust the process so I'm very fortunate to be successful because whatever I demand of my players they're respectful in a way in which everything is yes coach I'll do that and case in point my quarterback last year I mean we really changed the culture of huku football not just from a primarily dominant running team but now to be a passing team in which we can take advantage of what defensive gives us and every time I got on to my quarterback he says coach I got you coach I got you and that's why I'm so successful because I have players that are respectful to that degree coach I got you and that's jason maratharangi who was one of my captain's last years of quarterback I love hearing that I love hearing your insights coach sterling in I want to ask you about this I I know that when you guys play a lot of games and you have the game under control you'll put in your second string and your third string and the other coach knows what you're doing and but you know sometimes the public might only see the final score and let's say the final score is 76 to 7 and they're thinking whoa how come this team is just blowing out running up the score but it's not the case right yeah exactly I mean coach he just put it there you know we we beat bar into last year 75 to 6 and and actually some of my starters only played the first quarter a lot of people don't realize is my second and third they go against the ones every single day they go against the best defense they compete against the best offense so when it's their turn to play they're just doing what they've been practicing to go against the best and executing at the highest level you know we we always have this that iron sharpens iron so when they have their chance they go out there and they execute just as much as our starters do so it's very unfortunate I mean last year I talked to both coach Sanchez and coach at Lelehua and at halftime I says coach I'm not trying to run up the score I respect you I respect you coach Mark at Lelehua your programs all that you stand for and trust me I'm not trying to run up the score I cannot go any deeper into my bench but my players will just continue to play hard and you know I met coach Mark at the start of our OIA meeting this year and the first thing he did is shake my hand and says coach I appreciate you for your humility and and things like that I never try to insult or disrespect any coaching anyway or any program or any player but I just want to make sure that my players are prepared weekend and week out from the top to the bottom we treat every player with respect on our program and we coach every player like they're the starter and so when it's their opportunity to play they perform and and that's all we can ask of them yeah and I want people to really understand this because like even for me as a coach I I'm training my players to play their hardest and toughest from the first point all the way to match point I want their switch to stay on where they're giving a hundred percent effort all the time not not a switch that you turn off and on and so that's how we're trying to train our players and your guys I mean if your first string is only playing one quarter I mean they're they're practicing so much they want to play in the games but when that second string comes in they're practicing just as much as a first string and so is the third string and when they get in they that's their time to play and they want to score right exactly you know we we coach our players to play to their potential right regardless of who we are playing whether we're playing Farrington or St. Louis or Mililani or Wynine we always tell our boys to play to their potential and so as we ingrain that within their minds and they compete weekend and week out practice weekend and week out when it comes game time they're doing that you're playing to the best of their abilities yeah and you know for me too coach I just want to add this that oftentimes when we would play smaller schools I'm playing my weakest lineup against them and the other coaches are you know thanking me for that and like how the coaches are thanking you for putting in your second and third string players but you know we know that a high tide raises all boats I mean we want to make sure that our teams can be the best that they can be so that potentially we can compete against the national teams right exactly and and you know coach that's why this year we're very fortunate to be playing national powerhouses in St. John Bosco who came out as the preseason number one team in the nation and also St. Francis from Maryland that there came in at preseason number three so we want to make sure that we're not just playing to the best of our abilities but also playing the best that is out there and so as a public school we don't have the luxury of oh we're losing these players let's go and recruit these others we're we just have who we have year in and year out and right now like you said coach we're at that high tide our potential of our players it is the all-time high so we have to take advantage of this team to see where we stack up against the nation's best in St. John Bosco and St. Francis. Well coach Sterling I really enjoyed meeting with you last week and you have both of my books and Ryan Tanaka the owner of Giovanni Pastrami Restaurant in Waikiki he's going to be doing a book donation to your entire team next week and I want to know what what are some things that stood out to you in the books? You know coach as you know we're in this profession not because of the money especially at the high school level we're here because we love the sports but most importantly we love the student athletes that we coach and so one thing that really stood out in my mind is like how you mentioned like a boss cares only about the work but a leader cares about the people and you know as as head coaches yes by default we are the leaders of that team and my perspective is and always will be about our players the people and you know that that's what I thought of and that's why I applied for the job not because I want to be the famous kukuku head coach but because I want to be there for the players on and off the field whether they need a meal whether they need tutoring in math or in Spanish I just want to be there for them and so that's why I loved about your analogy on that and your statement that I'm not I'm not a boss I'm a leader and I'm a leader for my student athlete I'm glad you brought that up and you also like that snoopy quote in there right yeah exactly you know about winning until you lose right no one cares about winning until you lose so I really like that that you had that on your wall I actually googled that and screenshot it and that's one thing I'm going to be sharing with my team because you know we out here training hard we've been training almost year round our players right and if people tell you that it doesn't matter winning or losing you know how I think twice especially to our players that it does matter yeah no the snoopy quote right it doesn't matter if you win or lose until you lose and that's so true because you and I I mean I think for us winning is fine but I think you and I really just hate losing and if we win it's like oh yeah we won but we just hate losing is that true with you too yeah I just hate losing because I feel like if we lose I myself take it personally I didn't prepare my players I put them in a situation in which they failed and and that's one why I hate losing because I hate to see my players fail or feel like they failed that they let me down as a culture let their family down as sons and so it's not just losing but it's it's seeing them go to that and as much as I don't like it I don't like putting them in that position so that's why losing you know I hate you know I don't like it gone that that's why you're a great coach like you said you're thinking gosh maybe I should have prepared better maybe I should have done this more maybe we should have done this less or whatever the case is and you're just taking full responsibility and that's what the greatest leaders do and coach sterling I want to ask you in terms of team bonding what kind of activities do you guys do off field well coach for my program I always make sure that we have at least a service project once a month and any people say wow coach but you have a game every single week I make time for them to serve the community um to get out there because you know within my my religion you know as a bishop of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints site when you're in a service to your fellow man you're in a service of your God and so it allows them to think more about others rather than themselves and so to build that team bonding to build that oneness and appreciation for everything that they have we go out and serve at least once a month I like that you're making time to do that I mean everybody has time so many people say that they're so busy but you know busy is relative I mean I know a lot of busy people that that are very productive so I like that you're you're making time to do that with your team and I want to ask you about this coach sterling I always say that performance goals directly influence results what kind of performance goals do you focus on with your team well with our team our performance goals coach is you know first and foremost is is staying disciplined which is minimizing our penalties because that is something that we can control right going off sides watching the ball staying on count listening to the cadence so that's one of the biggest performance goals because it's something that we have control over right and you know defensively we always reaching a shutout offensively we look into score seven touchdowns we want to make sure that like I said earlier we're playing to our potential and that is our potential to take care of the things that we can and execute and perform the things that we have been doing in practice I'm glad you said that because yes it's a huge thing to only focus on things that are within our control and not really worry about things beyond our control and you brought up self-discipline I always think that self-discipline is probably the biggest key because self-discipline leads to habits which leads to success and I always would tell my players that self-discipline is doing the right thing regardless of how you feel whether you feel like it or not doing the right thing all the time do you agree with that I totally agree with that coach it's exactly what we preach as well you know consistently being able to do the right thing and and one of the things I tell my players is anybody can come in and play Friday night or they can come to one of our practice lift and run but can they do it consistently to the duration of the season are they willing to get up at seven in the morning on a Saturday and come out and work out are they willing to stay three hours with filming lifting and practice weekend and week out are they able to wake up in the morning and go to your early morning seminaries go to school and do your whole day that's full right so self-discipline also requires consistency to make sure you're not just a superior I mean a great team but a superior team as you mentioned in your book right the superior culture you want to be able to get to yeah I always say there's a big difference between a culture of excellence and a superior culture of excellence in and that's what you're about that's what I love about you coach sterling and I want to ask you what's what's a big challenge that you're dealing with as coach you know a big challenge is the the parents the community at times that you know we know we have a great team right unfortunately only 11 can play at a time right but every every player and every parent wants their you know son to be playing and so that's a challenge in which my coaches and I we are aware of and as much as possible we want everyone to get into the game everyone to perform to their best and so the challenge is trying to get everyone equal amount of sharing time and getting filmed getting recognized because everybody is putting into work every single day so we want to make sure that we're able to reward them for the hard work you know that's that's uh I'm glad you brought that up and for me I wouldn't just coach my players I would actually be coaching my players parents as well so that they know what we're doing and I would also tell tell the parents that I'm not going to protect your child from a challenge I'm going to teach them how to face it and I need you to help reinforce uh what we're working on to really help your child deal with not just tennis and the competition but really about life's challenges what are your thoughts about that I totally agree coach you know the other year unfortunately we had three coaches on my staff passed away right so that that was a real challenge um for us as a team a challenge that didn't happen on the football field but a challenge that happened off the football field so helping our players understand that there is more to life than just football and exactly how you say we're not protecting them from life and its challenges because it will come and a lot of our coaches who passed away were father figures to a lot of my players and so being able to see the perspective of life outside of football helped us to get closer last year and that was one of the biggest reasons for our success is the chemistry and the closeness of our teams in pulling together to these adversities and tragedies these adversities and tragedies brought us closer together and because of that we were more successful if you look at our OIA championship game last year within three plays we're down 14 nothing to Mililani on a wet cold night at Lele Hoa High School the good thing about that coach is none of my players nor my coaches started to complain or bicker or point the finger rather defensive players was coming over and says coach whatever you need us to do an often my defensive coaches offensive coaches were in communication in what they seen and how we can attack certain things and eventually we came back and had 21 unanswered points and ended up winning the game and won the OIA championship but that's what we want to do is build the character of our players so that when adversity does happen we're not pointing the fingers but rather looking within ourselves and saying what can we do to help what can we do to make the situation better and that was one of the biggest things that happened to us last year and brought our success now and I like that you said that and it's about your mindset I mean you're coaching your players and and your assistant coaches are coaching them to have the right mindset and to choose the better choices like staying positive and really maybe just focusing on the next play right and coach I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap up what gives you fulfillment well coach to be honest it's my wife and my family I'm only as successful because of my wife who does everything that everyone doesn't see right they see me coaching they see me within the community but they don't realize is my wife back home is taking care of our three daughters right taking care of the house taking care of the bills and everything else that comes in running a family I'm successful because I'm able to have a peace of mind that everything else back home is taking care of because of my wife and the support that she gives so my fulfillment comes from my family right my family my mom my my brothers and my sisters and their support and so once I know that I have their support and they allow me to do what I do I can be able to focus and do the things that I do even better well I'm glad you said that I mean they go I mean they're behind the scenes and and it's so important for them to do what they do to allow you to do what you do in terms of your coaching and and coach sterling I really want to thank you for taking time to be on the show today I mean I I want our entire state of Hawaii to be proud of you and your entire Kahuku football team well thank you coach for having me here I'm just like I said very grateful to be surrounded by great coaches on my staff and I appreciate their hard work because they work individually with our players every day and collectively as a staff we're able to put together a championship team and I'm also grateful for the families who trust us with their players to allow us to do service within the community to teach them the correct principles on and off the field and also just shout out to my players I'm grateful that they're very respectful and great young men and so I'm very fortunate coach like I said to have me on this show and be able to talk about our program I appreciate it thanks coach sterling and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii for more information please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble I hope that coach sterling and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs aloha thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo you can also follow us on Facebook Instagram Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com Mahalo