Gators to play squad from Hawaii

Just because UNLV will be in Evanston, Ill., to take on Northwestern doesn't mean Sam Boyd Stadium won't be packed with serious football fans Sept. 5.

The venue will be home to a rare Saturday night prep game, between Green Valley High School and perennial national power St. Louis, a private school from Honolulu.

The contest, which has been in the works for most of the spring and summer, is now official, according to Gators coach Larry Thomas.

"They initially contacted me and said they wanted to bring a team to Las Vegas," Thomas said. "They'd heard we'd been a pretty good program, and they wanted to play somebody respectable."

Green Valley finished the 1997 season with a 7-4 overall record (4-3 Sunrise Division), losing in the Southern Zone semifinals to Western. This year, the Gators will open their season against the Warriors before taking on their Hawaiian opponent.

"It's a good game early in the season to see what's going on," Thomas said. "We want to see how we compare to the nationally ranked teams."

In 1996, Thomas' squad upset highly touted Long Beach-Poly (Calif.). "That's what we hope to do again," he said.

St. Louis, which has been ranked nationally in various prep polls for the better part of the last five years, captured its 12th straight state title last fall.

The Crusaders went 13-1, earning the No. 4 spot in the Sporting News' annual Top 25 poll.

"(The Green Valley game) will get us warmed up before we start kicking off the season," said St. Louis coach Cal Lee, whose team will open its campaign against the Gators.

Lee said Las Vegas was a natural choice for an out-of-town contest because of the large Hawaiian population in Southern Nevada.

"There are 30,000-40,000 Hawaiians there, and we're hoping a lot of them will come out to see the game," Lee said.

The game should also give Lee's players an opportunity to be seen by some of UNLV's coaches, one of whom -- defensive line coach Sam Papalii -- is a St. Louis graduate.

Lee said the Crusaders have three legitimate Division I prospects: senior tailback Noah Campbell (5-11, 250), senior linebacker Joe Siofele (6-2, 230) and senior defensive tackle Junior Tagoai (6-3, 290).

The Rebels already have four St. Louis products on their 1998 spring roster: freshman linebacker La'anui Correa, freshman defensive lineman Faaolo Alovao, sophomore tailback Micah Ancheta and freshman linebacker James Sunia.

"A lot of our kids go to UNLV and we like to visit Las Vegas," Lee said. "But we want to go up there, compete and try to come home with a win."

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