 Hi, 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're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My book Beyond the Lines is about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is an incredible leader and he's the head coach of the Damien football team. He is Coach Eddie Kleneski and today we are going Beyond Football. Hey, Coach Eddie, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you for having me Rusty. Really excited about it. Now, Coach Eddie, I want to get the updates about what is Damien doing right now about the coronavirus situation? Okay, we've kind of been at the forefront of this virus. Our president Brian Wallace kind of been, you know, he's been involved in a lot of these things in the past and it's been, it's been pretty, pretty good for, he's kind of, you know, implemented a lot of things as far as extending, you know, our spring break. We extended it a lot way before the public schools did and, you know, we're not going back to school. We're extending it even farther. And even prior to that, he had our teachers and our faculty basically have some courses during the time we were in school like professional development to get us prepared to put our classes online. And, you know, even this week, because he extended the spring break to this week, our faculty members are meeting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, kind of getting ready to go live online on Monday. And, you know, our kids are going to be, are really fortunate because we do have one-to-one technology and we're able to do it for our kids. And, you know, we're really prepared for it. And, you know, if it extends even longer, we're ready for all that to go down. And, you know, our kids are, you know, prepared at home with their, with their laptops and, you know, there are School of G apps and a whole bunch of other apps that we have ready, you know, once we get into that. So I think we're fully prepared. And, you know, our administration did a great job of getting our faculty and staff ready for this, you know, the long haul. Well, that's great to hear because, you know, I'm a proud Damian alumni and so are you. And I want to ask you, Coach Eddie, about your early years growing up in Hawaii, if you can share with me about that. For sure. You know, I grew up out in Crestview, my PO Gentry side. And, you know, just living in, kind of, I wouldn't say it's a rough neighborhood, but it's not a place where things came easy. We played a lot outside, you know, riding our bicycles, you know, running down the street, playing football on the concrete, you know, kind of getting into a lot of mischief out there. But it was a great learning experience for me. Nowadays, kids are, you know, on their phones, cell phones, social media, those types of things. We never even had access to that, you know, until we got a little bit older. But, you know, it, you know, just created a lot of character in me just, you know, being able to have fun and learning the hard way, I guess, you know, going out there, you know, falling off my bike, you know, falling down on the street, getting scratches and those types of things. And, you know, just those little hard not life lessons, you know, learning, growing up on that side, it was, it was, it created a little toughness in me, you know, where, you know, if I get hurt, it was something I just had to get up and walk away from, you know, put a band-aid on Institute, whatever it was, you know, you learn those tough, those hard not life lessons. Nowadays, a kid might fall down, get a little scraped, they're calling the ambulance, you know, so at times it definitely changed. And, you know, it was fun, you know, I attended Kanoalani Elementary School, you know, in Waipio Gentry. And then I played, I went to Pearl City Highlands, you know, that was kind of our district. And, you know, from there, ended up kind of, I wouldn't say I got recruited to Damien, but one of my football coaches who was a Pop Warner coach at the time, you know, ended up becoming the head coach on the JV at Damien and I was able to attend there. They, you know, said, hey, you know, we'd like you to come to play for us and ended up playing at Damien. And then from there, ended up at UH and played ball at both Damien and at UH. And so, you know, it was a great experience growing up my whole life of being here in Hawaii. And now I'm back where it all started, you know, back at Damien. No, I love it. And Coach Eddie, you know, looking back, what was the first job that you ever had that you got paid money for? Going back, you know, I was a newspaper boy, you know, me and my brother, I'm not, I don't even remember how we got the job. But somehow we ended up, you know, selling new newspapers on Sunday morning, we'd be, we'd get picked up in a van. It was weird, you know, like seven, eight kids get in a van, you get dropped off at various spots, you know, along the route and, you know, basically walking down the middle of the street, selling Sunday papers and earning tips, you know. So it was kind of a kind of a different experience. They don't really do that anymore these days, but it was fun for us, you know, opened up, you know, checking my first checking account. I still have that same account to this day, you know, 30 years later. And it's, you know, it's, it's a, it's kind of helped me along, you know, just experiencing, you know, how to earn money and do those things. But yeah, selling, you know, the star, or it's actually, I think it was a star bulletin or something else. That was the first job and it was, you know, a fun job for us. Coach Eddie, let's talk about your family. I mean, you are completely surrounded by females. So can you tell me about your wife and your five daughters? Well, you know, my wife, she's a, she's a strong woman. She's a, you know, HPD officer. And, you know, without her, you know, we wouldn't be able to make this thing happen. You know, we, we, we have five girls combined together. And it's been, it's been a crazy, crazy time. And, you know, I love each and every one of them. And, you know, without her, you know, being that rock, you know, it's, it's, we wouldn't be able to make it. And it's been fun. I mean, we see the little one, she's, you know, five years old, going to be six now, trying to be 20 all of a sudden. And, you know, we have our oldest one, Kayla, she's going to University of Hawaii. She's actually trying to be a journalist too. Hopefully one day she'll be on the news, doing, you know, doing some newscasts and things like that. And, you know, they're all athletes, you know, Kayla played softball. She won a state championship with Pac five. Damian didn't have a team at that time. Kayla, the second one, I mean, Kyra, our second one, who's a senior this year, you know, played both volleyball and basketball. And that picture that you guys see there, she was actually, she won a state championship for the girls volleyball for Damian, the first state championship for Damian High School and Super Proud of her. So really exciting. And we have the, you know, the other two, they played volleyball basketball as well for Damian eighth graders, Ken and Cody. So, you know, we're athletic family and, you know, we're really excited. And it's a, it's never a dull moment. Put it that way in the household. So, interesting. There needs this quarantine time with these guys. So So, Coach Eddie, let's talk about your time playing, you know, football for Damian. What, what did you like about playing football during your high school years? Well, as you guys, as you know, Damian, back in the day is a little bit different. Obviously, the number one thing that's changed is there's girls now. Back then, there was, there was only boys, totally different, totally different time, different place. And even since I've been there, Damian, I could see the difference from the boys to the girls. But it was just, it was a great experience for me. I mean, football was the, I learned so many things from football. And that's why I kind of am where I am today. I have a lot of great friends, you know, you know, playing on these teams, you know, I've never been in, you know, football to me. And I always tell my kids at this time, it's, you're never going to play a game like this. Football is so unique. You have to have so many things working together in order to be victorious. It's a lot of different than any other sport, like basketball, you have five guys soccer can be a little bit comparable to it. But it's just a, it's a different kind of game, you know, being able to bond with so many players and, you know, you create a lot of friendships and, you know, there's a lot of life lessons you can teach kids, you know, with the game of football and, you know, playing gaming and, you know, being under Coach Ina, who was very hard nose coach, you know, there was days where, you know, I wanted to walk off and quit because I got beat up on the field and, you know, you got scolded and things like that. And, you know, you couldn't go home and tell your dad, hey, you know, this and this happened. He's like, well, what did you do? And you get licking again, right? So it's kind of a different kind of time. But I tell you right now, that's where definitely the toughness I learned, how to, how to, you know, be really tough and fight through things and just kind of don't give up type of attitude. And at the same time, Coach Ina, you know, he loved us, you know, he showed us so much love. If he's, you know, yell at us or scold at us or punish us or discipline us, whatever you want to call it. He, at the end of the day, at the end of practice, he would say, hey, this is why I did it, you know, and that was huge for me, not, you know, not being able to learn from that. That was awesome that you could, you could still be loved. But you had to go through these tough times, you know, and that's just a different way of showing you love. And, you know, as long as I was told that, hey, this is the reason why, then, you know, that was great for me. And I learned a whole lot from him. And I kind of try to instill that, you know, as I'm a coach now. What's, what's one of the biggest things you learned while you, you were playing college football for University of Hawaii? I think, you know, the biggest thing there is just, for me, my story going to UH was, it was, it was a rough one, you know, going, coming out of high school, I kind of, I think it was pretty good. But I never really got recruited. I had one school looking at me and, you know, just very at the very tail end of my senior, my last game, we played against St. Louis, and I had a good game. And, you know, we're playing at the old cook field. And the UH coaches happened just so happened to be there. So they kind of like, what do you call it? They kind of recruited me late, but I didn't get a scholarship. So I had to walk on to the University of Hawaii. I was treated really well, just like one of the scholarship guys. But I just, the thing that I think that I learned most, and I take away from my experience there was just having to work through adversity, just being an undersized, smaller, slower kid coming out. But I just, I just was mentally tough. And I just had to fight through all these things. And, you know, for me, I just had fun when I played, when I played at UH. And guys actually hated me because when at my freshman year, when I was a, when I was on the scout team, I really, I wasn't, I don't know if I was trying hard or just was having fun because I love to play football. But the guys on the first team would get so bad at me, because I was, I would beat them during a certain career or do something good and make them look bad. And they was just like, you know, it was kind of like, wow, what is this kid doing? So I would get hit, you know, things would happen to me in school, but I mean, in practice, but I didn't really care because I was having fun. And I never was intimidated, never, never ran behind the back of the line. I was always a first on up. And I just thought, I think the biggest thing for me was just, you know, being able to overcome all these stereotypes of being too small, being too short. You know, I worked, worked really, really hard, you know, for those whole, all those years in the off seasons to kind of get where I got to. And I had to, I had to do it myself. And when I was at UH, you know, I just, I pushed through it, you know, fought through all of that worked really hard and did my best to kind of be in shape and get bigger, stronger, faster every year. And that was a big thing that instilled to me that hard work and dedication, knowing that, you know, if you do put in the time, you do put in the work that, you know, you will be able to, you know, accomplish the goals that you set for yourself. And, you know, I eventually got my scholarship, you know, two years later. And it was just due to all that hard work, you know, just training hard, not giving up on myself. Well, Coach Eddie, you know, I'm super proud of you because you graduated Damien like five years after I graduated. And then so I, I mean, I was like watching you in football for Damien and at UH cheering for you. And now, you know, that you're the head coach for the Damien football team. What are, what are your priorities as head coach for the, for the boys? You know, just like anybody else, I think my priorities definitely, you know, are, are kind of focused on how the kids character is, you know, to me, football is just a, an avenue for me to teach these kids life lessons, you know, how important working hard is how important to, you know, take care of your family, how important it is to take care of your school work, to do the things that really matter, you know, the little things, you know, working hard in the weight room and nobody's nobody's there if you're by yourself, are you going to do the same thing with when there's, you know, people there. So, you know, they got to take care of all these little things. So when they leave us, you know, we make them, we kind of make them better people as a whole. And that's kind of my main priority. You know, it's sometimes, like I said, we just, we kind of, we, we get down on our kids and, you know, like you say, discipline the kids a certain way, but we don't just do it to do it to punish them. There's always a lesson learned, there's always something gained from it. You know, we don't just do things to do them. And I think the priority is to make sure we, we transform our kids from being maybe a self centered person or selfish person and kind of make them a team player, make them better human beings, you know, well rounded and just kind of, hopefully we make them better than when we got them. And that's kind of my priority with our, with our kids. And, you know, I think we've done a pretty good job of doing that. And you can see it when you're, you know, you see kids five, 10 years later and you're like, Hey, coach, and it is talk to you about certain things. And remember, Hey, I remember when you made us do this or that. And now I understand. And that's the huge thing for me is seeing those kids understanding why we did what we did at that time when they didn't really understand what we're doing. So, you know, it's always that's, that's a huge priority for me. And we continue to do that me and the rest of my coaching staff. I like hearing that coach, Eddie. And coach, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond football. Okay. Yes, definitely. We'll be here. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Coach Eddie Klaneski. We will be back in 60 seconds. Hello, I'm Lillian Cumick, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor, and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is an incredible leader and head coach of the Damien football team. He is Coach Eddie Klaneski, and today we are going beyond football. Hey, Coach Eddie, I want to ask you, why is St. Louis football so good with Cal Lee and Ron Lee over all of these years? I just think the main thing with St. Louis is, first of all, the tradition that they've instilled from when Cal had his first stint way back in the day. I remember playing football against them, and they just have a tradition that's been built there for many, many years. Fathers, uncles, brothers, they all kind of understand what the expectation is there, and Cal Lee did a great job of winning championships a long time ago, and now that's a place where everybody wants to go. That's kind of the baseline. Of course, they have a lot of talent there, but so do other schools, but I just think the difference with them is, like I said, that tradition. People, they don't go there expecting to win. They actually go to St. Louis, and they train hard. They work the kids hard. I coached at St. Louis one season with Darnell Arsenal, and I learned that. In fact, for some of the kids that didn't understand that, I had to scold them and say, hey, I played against St. Louis. I didn't go to St. Louis, but this is not how St. Louis men act. We had to instill that into some of the kids that kind of thought it was a right for them. They still had to earn it like their fathers and their uncles and their brothers did. That's what it is. It's basically an expectation of excellence, of having a great brand of football. A lot of people don't have that same feeling, but I respect that program for what they've built, and you got to do something right in order to continue to win those championships. It's not always about talent. It's about how you instill it. Coach Cowley actually coached me when I played for the Hawaiian Islanders, and he was a great coach. He always knew what to tell you. That's one thing I learned from him, is that whenever there was a game or situation, Coach Cowell would always tell each individual a certain thing, and it's like, oh, wow, I didn't think about it that way. He always knew the right things to say at the right moments, and I think he's continuing to do that now that he's back over there. Obviously, I think they won four state championships in a row, and that's unbelievable. Considering he did it 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and he won 15 in a row. It's a testament to his legend and everything that he does for them, and their tradition is top notch for sure. I like hearing that about how you said about tradition, and it's really a culture, and it's a high standard of excellence. Coach Eddie, I want to talk to you about my book Beyond the Lines. I know you're a big fan of it, and I want to know what principles stood out to you in the book. Well, I just think I read through your book a few times, and just going back to it. A lot of it resonates with me. You talk about character in there, and you talk about a lot of the kids that you've taught, and the things that you, I'm sorry, you coached, and I think character is a huge one for me, and like I mentioned earlier, that's something that I instill with our kids, and just talking about the way they act, things that they do will transform into their daily life, and if we as coaches can instill good character, you talk about your passion and your purpose, and it goes into performance. A lot of those things, I really take them hard, and I've been doing a lot of these things in the years that I've been coaching and gaming, and I just think that that character part of it is huge, and you can kind of see when the kids kind of start to change, and they understand that that's important, it's going to transform them, and make some better people, and make some better players, make some better teammates, and things like that, and I think that's a huge one for me, is make sure you create these kids the right way, and make sure they understand what having good character means, and be really honest, and making sure they take care of that stuff, and I'm really excited for our kids when they come to our program. I always try to recruit kids from our other sports, and try to get them involved, and that's the main thing for me, is to kind of help them through my coaching style, to help them with their other sports. For me, I want to like, this is the reason why I want you here, you can help us win, but we also want to change your mindset, your mentality, and I always try to do my best to kind of make sure that's something we hit on with me and my coaching staff, and at the end of the day, if we don't win, at least we're teaching them how to be good young men, and be good family members, brothers, sons, things like that, and that's the main thing, and your book kind of, there's a lot of examples of that, a lot of your players, and it's really good. That's what you do for all of these years too, because in the book, I talk about character, and how we need to instill discipline, because once they have self-discipline and team discipline, that leads to great habits, and then that leads to winning, but ultimately it's just to really be great people in society. No, I totally agree, and it basically gets you ready for the real life. I mean, they don't understand it at the time, they're like, why do I have to be here on time? That was another thing I meant to mention that earlier too, was my other coach at UH was, if we were five minutes early, we were late, you know what I mean? We needed to be there before the coach was there, and that was a big thing for us, and in your book you talked about your snake runs and those things, and the things that they, you kind of, not punishment, but that was a discipline, because they also could use it to better their game, and we do the same thing. We have different ways of getting our kids, and we don't even call it discipline anymore. I forget, we changed it, it used to be punishment, but now it's, we're doing extra conditioning work, that's what it's called. It's a more of a positive thing, and we want to make sure they understand that they're not doing this for punishment, but there's a purpose, and there's a reason why you need to be on time, because if you come late to work every single day, you're going to get fired. You know what I mean? Things like that, and if you do, you know, if you keep making these mistakes, it's going to affect you, you're going to affect your family, you're not going to have food on the table, and things like that, so you know, just continue to instill those attributes to our kids, and understanding that they need to do those things, and they're going to eventually figure it out down the road, so that's the main thing for me. Coach Eddie, what are some of the challenges you face on your team? You know, for us, you know, there's a whole lot of different challenges, you know, a lot of, some of our kids, I don't want to say they're, they have a rough time, I should say, sometimes, because some families, they have to work, they may have two jobs, so kids have to kind of do a lot of things on their own, whether they catch the bus, and it's not, it's not easy to play football for me at gaming, because there's times where we have kids that, you know, during the summertime, they have to be here from, you know, two o'clock or two thirty for a team meeting, weight training, summer program, those types of things, and they have to catch a bus, they have to get up to catch the bus, and then they have to catch the bus back home after we finish practice, so there's a lot of those things that our kids have to go through, so we have to kind of adjust to those guys and understand that we have to be, you know, compassionate for them when they have these hard situations, so, you know, just kind of figuring out that we can't treat, we want to treat all our kids the same, but also understanding that there are some kids that actually go through a little bit more hardship just to be able to play football, and you know, we want to do our best to kind of help our kids out and make it easy for all of them to kind of be fair, but I think that was a huge challenge, I think for me, at the beginning, if you want to go back to the beginning of when I coached, I think the biggest thing was to change the culture, like you talk about changing the culture, right? At Damian, when I took over, we had went three seasons, I think, and never won a game, and prior to that, it was really bad, it was going downhill, and we weren't winning, and you know, they're talking about not having football, and you know, the biggest thing for me was creating a culture of we can win football games, and it was a matter of getting better and toughening out. From the first year when I coached, we would be in a game in the first quarter down 7-0, and all of a sudden, the game's over, it's like, what are you guys talking about? So we changed the culture from that to being in a game, I remember, I want to say, just maybe three years ago, we were playing against Eolani, we were down in the first quarter 28 points, it was 28-0, we ended up winning that same game in overtime 35-28, so it's amazing how we changed around just the mindset, you know, the mindset back then when we first started was, oh, we can't win this game, we're not gonna win, we're not gonna win, blah blah blah, we're gonna give up. Compared to where it is now, it doesn't matter if the game's 7-0, 28-0, we're playing the same, we're not giving up, we're trying hard, and we always have a chance to win, and the culture has went from accepting losing to expecting to win, so that was, to me, that's the biggest legacy for me when I leave, is I left game in saying we're expecting to win football games and win championships, we're accepting losing, that's not good enough, to me, that was the biggest change, and I think that was one of the biggest obstacles I've overcome since I've been there, I think. I totally agree with you, I remember when that was happening, and it was so sad, and that's why I always say, everything starts with the head coach or the CEO of a team, and that's what you've been doing, I mean, you've been having such a great impact, and Coach Eddy, I always say that when you're playing sports, or even in business, you're either winning, losing, or tied, but your attitude and effort should always be awesome, right? Now, I want to ask you one more thing, how has your coaching style evolved through these years? Well, I think when I very, very first started, I kind of was the old school way, I want to say I was very hard on my kids, and I had super strict deadlines, super strict disciplinary plan in place, and I kind of was, I was a stickler for it, and I didn't really think about what people were going through during their times, and I think that to me was the biggest change I made, and every year it's changed, I went from, if you missed one workout, this happened, you missed two days, this happened, if you missed this many days, you're suspended and you're off the team, it was really harsh, it was really, you know, on paper and it was set, and you know, when I, as I evolved as a coach, I think I kind of adjusted to those times where it's like, I took into consideration family situations, you know, it was a point where if people went on vacations, it was like, it was, they didn't want to do it because they knew when they come back to football, they're gonna have to do all this and this and this, I kind of eased up a little bit on it, but the expectation is still there, you know, people still need to be a part of what we're doing and coming there on time, but it was just, it's kind of evolved in the sense where I'm, I wouldn't say more lenient, but more understanding of what's happening at home and the different types of things that they, you know, family's planned and just being able to adjust to that and, you know, being more open and, you know, accepting things when I can't do nothing about it, I don't want to force them into this, you know, round hole and, you know, that was my biggest thing and I think I'm not softer by any means, but I'm more understanding and I accept it, you know, when, especially when it's the communications there and they tell me, hey, we're gonna do this, no problem, this is what you gotta do, so that's the biggest change for me and I think it's helped out. My teams have grown from, because I've done that, we were able to get more baseball players, more basketball players, more volleyball players to cross train because they're able to kind of accommodate both of their sports during the summertime, for sure. Coach Eddie, you are a great man and a great leader and I want to thank you for sharing your insights on the TV show today. Oh, thank you, Rusty, I really had a great time and wish you the best of luck and we're looking forward to that next book. Oh, I'm gonna get that second one to you shortly, okay? Okay, awesome, thank you. 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 & Noble. I hope that Coach Eddie and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.