Rod York gathered his team after a tough loss and began to lecture them.
He balanced sternness and sympathy with honesty when addressing his players, some of whom were in tears following their first loss of the season, a 25-6 loss to Moanalua in the OIA championship game. He told them to embrace the pain and tears, that the experience will make them a better team.
That type of display from York is usually reserved for the Fridays and Saturdays in the fall, where he's coached the Mililani High School football team since 2010. With the advent of girls flag football as a sanctioned high school sport in Hawai‘i, York, who is also a special education teacher at Mililani, was asked to coach the team and accepted.
"We needed a flag coach, and I said, 'I'll do it.' We got some more coaches and the players help out the girls to teach them, just like everybody else," York told Aloha State Daily. "Flag football is new for these girls. Why not be a part of something special?"
In York's time as Mililani's tackle football coach, the Trojans have won five OIA titles and two state titles, one in 2014 and another 2016, although the latter was in the state's second-tiered Division I tournament. When asked about the difference between coaching tackle and flag football, York said there's "not much."
"You cannot be too hard on them, but at the same time, you can be firm. But these girls want the coaching," York said. "They want that, that hard coaching. They want to be treated just as equally as the boys. As far as the coaching, the teaching, whether it's a girl or a boy, it's still mentoring, it's still teaching. And, yeah, we're having fun. We're having fun."
Flag football is the latest sport to be sanctioned at the high school level in Hawai‘i, with surfing a potential addition in the months ahead.
From a local programming perspective, flag football has earned the tackle football treatment, with the OIA championship getting televised live on Spectrum Sports OC16. Statistics taken from the game show that Mililani quarterbacks were intercepted five times against Moanalua, although the Trojan defense picked off star quarterback Zaira Sugui three times, including one returned for 28 yards by Sienna Maafala.
"Big ups to the OIA for putting this together," York said. "Title IX, it's a big win for the women. You see how much talent there is all over the state. Just having these girls come out and compete and coming on this stage, what a beautiful stage. OC16 is exciting for the girls. The only time they really (used to) play is on Sundays at the park.
"They had to travel out of state and spend all that money to have this type of stage, so big ups to Bryce Kaneshiro, OIA executive, all the athletic directors for putting this together and making it happen for us, and especially for these girls, because they get an opportunity. You saw them cheer, they cried a little but, but that's part of the fun. The journey, learning moments. Now we take this, and we both move into states, and now we get to compete with the ILH and the outer Island teams."
Moanalua is the top overall seed in the inaugural 16-team HHSAA Tournament, which features teams from four different Islands and five different leagues. Mililani is on the opposite side of Moanalua's bracket and will open against Wai‘anae. The single-elimination format concludes with Saturday's championship set for Saturday at Mililani at 7:30 p.m.
In between the time Mililani lost to Moanalua on April 18 and the opening of the state tournament on Wednesday, York was able to celebrate his former quarterback Dillon Gabriel getting selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. It was the second year in a row York had a former player selected, as Darius Muasau was selected in the sixth round by the New York Giants in the 2024 NFL Draft.
"Like I said, we still got life, so moving on, learning from this, and then just enjoying the process, the wins, the losses, that's what we preach," York said. "And even when we win, we say, hey, it's not about the win. It's just about doing your best. These girls are loving it. They're embracing it. We do team bondings, we go to the beach, we go to the pool, we go to the driving range, and it's all part of the process and the fun.
"At the end of the day, it's not really about flag football, it's about life and life lessons that they're gonna learn, and that's what we stress."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
