Q&A with new Castle head football coach Eric Stephens

The standard is the standard.

Eric Stephens is the new head coach at Castle High School, which is his first gig as the head man of a program after being a longtime assistant for nearly a decade.

He was previously the offensive coordinator at Waianae a year ago and was the co-offensive coordinator at Waipahu in 2023 when the Marauders won the Division I state championship.

The Knights dropped down to Division II last season and went 7-4 for their first winning season since 2010, but was shutout in their playoff opener.

HSRN got a chance to catch up with Stephens ahead of Castle’s season opener against Kailua.

The Knights line up in an I-Formation package in 2024 in a regular season game against Kaimuki. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

Congratulations on being named the head coach at Castle! What was the feeling and emotions like when you got the news?

“I was super excited. When the AD called me back in for my follow up interview, she really just interviewed me again and then at the end of the interview is when she made the offer so I was super excited. I’ve been waiting for awhile to kind of have an opportunity to do my own thing as far as establishing a program and building something so I’m just excited for this opportunity.”

How has the offseason been in preparation for the upcoming season?

“It’s been really good. These kids have really bought-in to the standard that we’re trying to set from the weight room to the offseason training, speed and agility, getting on the field working on the new offense, the new defense, getting acclimated to the new coaching staff, the offseason has been great just building the training program from scratch.”

Who are some of your coaching mentors and inspiration?

“Vince Nihipali (head coach at Waianae) is a really close friend and mentor. I’ve had an opportunity to really coach with him almost every year I’ve coached here in the state of Hawai’i, I think except for one or two years; I’ve been coaching for eight-plus years. Of course Bryson Carvalho at Waipahu, just another good relationship and good guy and just all the other legends around the island that I’ve had a chance to talk to and meet. DJ (Darren Johnson) at Campbell and of course Sterling (Carvalho) from Kahuku. All those guys have done a great job of just embracing young coaches and really helping me and help bring me along.”

First-year Castle coach Eric Stephens addresses his team at practice. | Photo: Brian Bautista

How would you describe your coaching style?

“I would say I’m pretty firm, just in general. I want the kids to follow the process, take their time, work everyday and really hold themselves to a high standard. I really believe in things like: mindset, attitude, discipline, holding each other accountable. I think that’s what’s important because it helps the kids not only on the field, but also off the field. I think that’s the really the most important part of being a head coach.”

Castle made the playoffs last season but came up short of a championship. How do you guys break through and secure the title this year?

“I think a lot of that has to do with the mindset. Having a championship mindset in everything that we do. We talk about making sure people come up to us versus us going to them or playing down to them. That’s what I call closing the gap. When you set a high standard, when everyone else comes around and everyone else is doing everything, they have to meet your standard, so they have to close the gap. I think we have to do that at all times. We have to be disciplined. I looked back at the film last year, there were some undisciplined plays that happened, so we really just want to focus on playing at that high level, following the process and just being disciplined.”

What are some positives that you saw from the Knights last season watching from afar?

“The physicality of the team overall on both sides of the ball. The offensive line, the defensive line, the linebackers. The running backs were extremely impressive just the way they ran the ball. A lot of teams knew they were going to run the ball but they were still able to run it, so I really try to build upon that physical strength and that’s really going to be our identity on both sides of the football.”

Kauanahe Kalahiki-Gohier is a returning All-OIA First Team selection at fullback and should be a key contributor in 2025. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

What are the things that you want to improve on?

“Again overall, not to sound like a broken record, but it’s really just the discipline. It’s really just the mindset, the attitude. Making sure that we take play-by-play, we follow the process, we don’t get caught up in the results, that we learn how to overcome adversity. Those are the things that I really want to focus on. It’s not really so much the X’s and O’s. It’s really sort of those intangible things that I think are the detailed part of being a championship team.”

Who are some of the players that we should watch out for this season?

“Few of the players to look out, one for us is Saumahe Haney-Tongotea. He’s our defensive end and he’s actually going to play a little bit of slot for us on the offensive side. He’s a little bit of a mismatch so we’re looking forward to him. Kai Kane Ramos-Barrionuebo, he’s our nose tackle. He’s just a ‘hammah’ on the inside. He’s a big strong player and we expect a lot of things from him as well. Also Noa Sebay, he’ll be playing quarterback, he’ll be playing slot. We may even put him on the defensive side of the ball as well. He’s just one of our most versatile players overall. Kauanahe Kalahiki-Gohier is our running back, he was actually First Team All-OIA last year in D2, kind of expect the same from him. He’s a big strong, powerful running back. He also has some speed as well. Aiden Kahele is another one of our running backs, another strong, powerful kid that does a lot for us, and our safety JHeart Sisra. These are all upperclassmen so there’s a lot of experience on this team. I’ve been fortunate enough and privileged enough and blessed enough to inherit a team that had a lot of experience so it’s really my job just to make sure I don’t mess it up and let them do what they do well.”

Saumahe Haney-Tongotea is a key player to watch for the Knights this season. He can play defensive end and slot receiver. | Photo: Michael Lasquero