The Black Flag of Waipahu is a symbol.

A powerful one that reflects something bigger than just winning football games.

Waipahu's head coach Sean Saturnio unfurled the black flag about 5-years ago. 

He wanted to change the mindset of the students - both players and regular student body.

This simple black flag is the opposite of a white flag - the symbol for surrender.

Saturnio, his staff, and the school administration want their kids to never give up on life, studies and bettering themselves. 

A lot of these young people come from disadvantaged homes, so quiting on a better life happens.

Now just waving a dark colored cloth around will not mold a young person's future alone.

Among the weekly tools Saturnio uses on his players is a weekly dress shirt and tie day. 

Every Wednesday all players and coaches on campus put on a shirt and tie to show respect to the school's teachers and student body.

Some parents expressed concern about not being able to buy a decent dress shirt and tie.  Not a problem, if they cannot get, Saturnio and his staff purchase a set for the kid.

The players also have weekly "pono pledges" which further point the players in the right direction.

The pledge card is about the size of an ID card.  Players are assigned one teacher and one other person in their life to give this card to. 

It basically says I want to give you respect and do something for you.  All I ask in return is for you (card receiver) to do something for another person.

Pretty cool huh?

Saturnio told me it builds in the student-athletes an ethic of doing something good for others with no reward to them.

By doing this each week, it's hoped the pono pledge becomes a habit that leads to a righteous life beyond high school.

Yes Waipahu wants to win football games.  (They lost to Kapolei this past Friday 28-21 in Overtime.)

But these Marauders play for bigger stakes - winning in the game of life.

Saturnio's hope is to make good sons, boyfriends, future husbands and dads with these young people.

Now that's a great game plan.

The line between disagreeing about something and being civil about it was not only crossed, it was obliterated once again.

I'm talking about the latest Kanye West awards show meltdown. 

If you somehow haven't heard or seen it, the rapper basically crushed the happy moment of celebration for 19-year-old Taylor Swift.  Swift had just won an MTV moon man award. 

West being the civil audience member he is (not) jumped on stage, took the mic from Swift and said she shouldn't have won it.

Talk about putting the ass in classy.

Swift to her credit was still able to perform about five-minutes later despite being shaken. 

She has also received an outpouring of support.

West has received a constant stream of you're a moron - to put it mildly.

But while one can say, yeah, that's just a music industry out of touch reality moment.  I disagree.

I see and hear it at every high school sporting event.  It comes from (some but enough to stick out) fans in the stands who seem to know better than every coach, official, and even at times - student athlete.

They swear, berate, threaten, and degrade anything and anybody that they don't agree with. 

Hmmm, sounds a lot like Kanye West huh?

I understand when your team makes a mistake, is losing, or a call is questionable that a fan can get grumpy. 

But wouldn't a civilized adult know enough to not make a Kanye-West of themselves? 

What type of example is that for kids?  And if your son or daughter is playing, what are you doing for them?  I imagine a lot of those kids are embarrassed for what they hear from their parents or relatives.

So where do these unsportsmanlike fouls (or is that vowels) come from?

I think for a lot of uber rude fans, it comes from being unhappy about their lives.  At least some part of it.

Maybe they have unfulfilled sports dreams and are trying to live them out through the kids playing now.  Maybe it's their one chance to standout in the crowd, for all the wrong reasons of course.  Some are just bullies. 

But for whatever reason, it's an outburst to put somebody down.  

Which in turn takes away from the greater moment of those teams, players, coaches, and other fans.

In the end it may make these Kanye-West's feel better about themselves.  But it's only temporary.  It will never truly resolve their issues.

One celebrity who came to Swift's defense asked, "Kanye were you not hugged enough as a kid?"

It's something that may also apply to a number of local Hawaii sports fans.

The devil is in the details.

Or in this case the game is in the paper.

What I'm talking about is the flood of calls I got this morning about concerned Campbell fans that the OC16 TV game featuring the Sabers was called off.

Which I'm happy to report is not true!  Campbell versus Mililani is very much "on" for this Friday from the Ewa Beach school's field.

Evidently what caused the uproar was a simple little listing in the Honolulu Advertiser what's on TV this week.  Yesterday it read Kapolei versus Leilehua.  So every orange and black blooded fan thought their home TV game was given the boot.

Kapolei and Leilehua was the originally scheduled event.  But that changed weeks ago because Kapolei's field cannot accomadate our cameras and crew this year.  They're still working on field items like the press box.  So when they couldn't host us, we picked up Campbell/Mililani.

That's what we've been blasting in our TV ads and other print material.  But the Advertiser may not have gotten any update to the original matchup and thus published the older game.

So there you go.  Case solved. 

OC16 Sports is looking forward to our first game from Campbell ever!

Promise.

See you on Friday - game time is 7:30 pm "live" on OC16 / HD 1016.

Aloha all,

I'm really happy to announce here that OC16 will be broadcasting football games from two "new" locations.

This weekend is of course Waianae vs Campbell - Saturday 7 pm (not Friday because of UH football, go Warriors!).

But check out the next two weeks...

* September 11 - Friday 7:30 pm - Campbell vs Mililani from Campbell. 

This is actually homecoming night for the Sabers in what could be a pivotal OIA West matchup for the visiting Trojans.  A trip to Ewa Beach is long overdue and we are all looking forward to a new scene.  It's also a return home for our cameraman Reggie Robinson, who's a Campbell alum - yup he was a standout football player who went on to play at UH.

* September 18 - Friday 7:30 pm - Waipahu vs Kapolei from Waipahu. 

I really like the way Waipahu coach Sean Saturnio and his staff try to do more than field a competitive football team.  The Marauders have a dress shirt and tie day during the school week for all players and staff.  It's a way to show respect to the other students, teachers, and staff of Waipahu.  The Marauders are scrappy and disciplined and it will be interesting to see how they do against Kapolei.  The Hurricanes are again loaded with more than a few D1 college prospects.

* September 25 - Friday 7:30 pm - Waianae vs Leilehua from Waianae.

Back to the westside!  Depending on how it shakes out, this could be key in the OIA West title chase.  At the worst, second place is on the line.

As always it's live on OC16, HD 1016, and the "new look" website www.oc16.tv