If it is January, then it must be time for the Polynesian Bowl from Honolulu. The event brings together some of the most talented high school football players from across the nation. As the excitement builds on the field, we're thrilled to announce that Duck Sports Authority is right here, ensuring you get comprehensive coverage of all the action. We will have exclusive coverage of everything related to Oregon and their 10 signed players on the Polynesian Bowl roster. Get ready for a thrilling display of skill, determination, and teamwork as these young athletes showcase their talent on the grand stage. Stay tuned with Duck Sports Authority for unparalleled insights and updates throughout the 2024 Polynesian Bowl!

Today we had the chance to meet the head coaches for the first time and get their views on the event, the state of college football, and their excitement over the opportunity to help mentor some of the best athletes in the nation for the week.

Maa Tanuvasa – a key to the defense of the 1997 and 1998 Denver Broncos Super Bowl Championships opened the even with remarks on the history of the event.

“Aloha and thank you for being here today as we kick off Bowl Week for the 2024 Polynesian Bowl here in Hawaii.

“I am the vice chairman and co-founder of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame and I would like to welcome everyone to today's press conference. It's an exciting day as players are arriving and checking in.

“Practices begin tomorrow and the week culminates with the game on Friday, which will be broadcast live and on primetime on the NFL Network. In fact, we are the only high school football game on the NFL Network. Kickoff is 4 p.m. local, 6 p.m. on the West Coast, and 9 p.m. on the East Coast. The all-star broadcast team consists of Kanoa Lehi, a Polynesian ancestry, the NFL Network broadcaster Steve Weiss, and YouTube sensation Dee Stroying as a sideline reporter. This is the seventh iteration of the Polynesian Bowl, and it just gets better every year. We are also proud to have the support of the National Football League.

“We would especially like to extend a warm aloha and welcome to our head coaches, Coach Marvin Lewis and Coach Mike Zimmern, who you will all hear from shortly. Coaches, welcome to Hawaii.

“Since 2017, the Polynesian Bowl has become the number one high school all-star game in the nation, where 100 of the finest players will conclude their high school football career. This year's game includes more five stars than ever before. The deepest our roster has ever been in the history of the Polynesian Bowl, including having the highest ranked and rated quarterback in the class of 2024, Nebraska signee Dylan Raiola.

“The stars have aligned, and you will see some unbelievable talent on the field this week. It is now my privilege to call upon my co-founder and chairman of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, four-time Super Bowl champion and class of 2015 inductee, Jesse Sapolu.”

Sapolu - a four time super Super Bowl Champion with the San Francisco 49ers is the other co-founder of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame and shared his opening remarks as well.

“Tanuvasa, a two-time Super Bowl champion himself – Sapolu began. “It is great to be here today. We are very proud of the Polynesian influence on the game of football. When I played, there were many times I was the only Polynesian on my team, or the opposing team. However, today is much different. Several of our Polynesian brothers had historic seasons with their teams in the NFL. Tua Tagovailoa, starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, led the league in passing yards. Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua broke the all-time record for receptions and receiving yards by a rookie. And Penei Sewell of the Detroit Lions was the highest rated offensive tackle in the NFL and was just named first team all-pro by the way.

“Each of those players are Polynesian Bowl alumni and the future is very bright. You are seeing the next generation in college from Nico Iamaleava at Tennessee down to young quarterbacks coming up like Dylan Raiola in the upcoming NFL draft. At least five players have been mentioned as possible first-round draft picks. Our mission for the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame and the Polynesian Bowl is to promote our players and help them get opportunities to attend college and even play professionally in the NFL.

“Just yesterday, we held our annual Hawaii Junior and Senior Showcase here in Honolulu. We had nearly 300 local student athletes compete on the field and were evaluated by nearly 20 D2 and D3 level football programs throughout the country who are the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame paid to come in and scout our kids.

“This annual showcase has produced millions of dollars in scholarships for Hawaii students over the years. The bowl game is not just about athletic achievement. It is meant to perpetuate and expose the richness of Polynesian culture for players this week. It's not just about football. They will visit the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor.

“There are community events planned and they are even going to learn to perform a haka before the game on Friday. Leading the players on the field this week are two of the best who ever do it, legends.

“First leading team Mauka, which means mountain, is Marvin Lewis, who served as head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals for 16 seasons. He also has a Super Bowl ring while serving as defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens in 2000. In 2009, he was named NFL Coach of the Year.

“Leading team, Makai, which means sea, is coach Mike Zimmer, who served as a head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 2014 to 2021. He also won a Super Bowl ring as an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys in 2009. While on Coach Lewis' staff in Cincinnati, he was named NFL's Assistant Coach of the Year. Coach Lewis, Coach Zimmer, it's an honor to have you both here in Hawaii with the Polynesian Bowl. With that, coaches, I wanted to turn the microphone over to you to say a few words. The floor is yours.

Marvin Lewis - who has worked in an advisory role at Arizona State over the last couple of seasons took some time to share his thoughts on the event as well.

“Thank you, Jesse. We're really honored, myself, Coach Zimmer, my good friend for a long time, to be here and be a part of the Polynesian Bowl. It's exciting to be a part with these young people as they enter their careers in college, their next steps in their football career and their football journey. But we're honored and flattered to be chosen to be part of this and really excited to begin working with these young men.”

While many football fans might know each individually, it might not be remembered that they worked together for five seasons in Cincinnati – but they have actually known each other for even longer when Zimmer was at Weber State and Lewis was at Idaho State.

Zimmer followed with some of his early thoughts.

“And for me, I'm extremely excited to be here, to get an opportunity to work with these young men, know how going through the roster, how great all the players are, how many are big time recruits, and I'm sure we'll see them in the NFL someday, but also I've always been very, very favorable with the Polynesian community. I loved recruiting those guys when I was at Weber State and Washington State and some of the West Coast schools. And so I always had fond memories of all those players that I coached. And I'm excited and very, very honored to be here this week with this bowl game.”

Duck Sports Authority opened the questions.

So, Coach Zimmer, I'm going to ask you a question because I overheard you talking about an experience of recruiting Samoa back when you were in Washington State. If you could tell everybody else kind of that experience, what that was like, and how it's sort of changed over the last 30 years. The recruiting now to the Polynesian culture is way different because one, everybody knows a lot more about the impact, but just the difference in the last 30 years.

Zimmer: “Yeah, it was an amazing trip for me because I'd never been to America and Samoa, and being with a lot of the players from that heritage, it was a great opportunity. I was there for a week. I would go to the players' houses. We'd have luau's and barbecues and things like that. Guys were showing me how to do a lot of the culture there. We'd drive down the freeway and everybody would be honking at each other.

“Actually, it was a small road. It was a pretty long road. It was a long road. It was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of great players at that time as well.”

We followed that up with a couple of questions for Coach Lewis.

Coach Lewis, you've been in the college game for the last couple of years, so you've been around this a little bit, had a couple of players that have played in this game a few days. What's it been like going from the NFL like you did to spending the last few years on a college campus and being around these younger guys?

“You know, it's been, it's really been a great experience. You know, before Mike and I both went to the NFL, we both coached in college for a long time. I think the difference is, and these guys that Jesse mentioned that have done so well in the National Football League recently, back in the day they hoped to get to the NFL. Now they walk in the college campus, and they actually think in three years I'll be in the NFL,” Lewis began.

“So, it's changed that. There's more, I guess it's just been highlighted more, accelerated, I guess would be the word, the whole process. It's exciting to be around those kids. Believe me, they keep you young that way. I really think coaching is coaching, whether you're coaching an eight-year-old, an 18-year-old, or a 28- or 38-year-old. That's why we do this.”

Givent eh time Zimmer spent in Minnesota, he was asked if the Honolulu weather made him miss Minnesota weather in January?

After laughter among his family, Zimmer answered briefly: “Not at all. Not at all. This truly is paradise.”

Duck Sports Authority then dug deeper into the problems facing college football.

Obviously, there's been a lot of changes at the college football level with NIL, with the transfer portal. What do you guys think about how that affects the way college coaches have to do their job now? It's different than it was 20 years ago when the kid came in, they were there for four years, no matter what. But it's changed. What do you guys both, what does Coach Lewis think of the changes?

“Well, Marvin's been closer to it, so I'll let him speak on that,” Zimmer deferred.

“I think it's hard for us to be critical of the fact that some of this stuff, the NIL, is changing lives for families,” Lewis began. “It's hard to be critical of that. I think as long as they're being counseled the right way of how to handle this money that they're receiving and that it doesn't go forever, it doesn't last forever, it's just like when a rookie gets to the National Football League. They have to understand that. That part of it is good.

“I don't know that the transfer portal is the best thing for college athletics because it destroys the team element of why we all did this for what we did, why we played football. Because we love the feeling of the team and the accomplishments of a team. These guys will tell you, they're Super Bowl teams, they're bonded together forever. Because of the sacrifices and everything they made; we're losing a little bit of that element of college sports right now.”

Jesse Sapolu also weighed in on our question.

“I think Marvin is a lot more of an expert than I am on it. I just see it from afar. I do agree with that part about the players being able to transfer. A lot of times they transfer because they're not good enough or they're going for more money or whatever the situation is I think it takes away from like Marvin was saying loyalty to the school and to the to their brothers around them that play. You know it's it's interesting because part of my job with the Niners you know once whatever rookies make the team we bring in the parents a week before the first game and I'm one of the guys that addresses the parents.

“I never thought I would have to worry about 17-year-olds. You know, it was 22-year-olds that we dealt with while with the San Francisco 49ers. And like Coach Marvin said, you know, we're happy for the kids, but the portal and the NIL, I mean, if your quarterback is driving a Mercedes to class and your offensive lineman's riding bicycles, how's that going to keep the team together?

“You know, I'm glad we came in the old era where everything was the same and it was easy to hold the teams together. And part of the reason why we had a little run with the Niners was because those teams had a lot of experience. A few new players here and there, but the core of those teams stayed together. So, it's a little different now, but it's just something that we have to deal with.”

Given Sapolu has been around for so many of the young Polynesian players, we also asked him how the relationships he has bult as part of the Polynesian Bowl has helped him in his advisory role with the 49ers. You mentioned your role with the Niners, which gives you a unique experience because you dealt with Talanoa Hufanga from the time he was 16 years old. I know. And then the Niners drafted him and you got to deal with him from there. What was that like I think from that transition for you, seeing that kid get drafted by the Niners?

“Well, Coach Zimmer and I were just talking about it. It's just like a snap of a finger all of a sudden, the kids that you see here, now you see in the NFL. You know, time flies. It's been a great experience to be able to mentor Talanoa. I just visited with him two weeks ago because he had his surgery in L.A. He's doing well. We're very proud of our kids.

“I think the important thing about this particular game is that some of these kids we'll see in the NFL in about four to five years. But for us to share our culture with them for the one week that they're here, if it helps them in a positive manner when they come into the NFL, how to handle life, then this game is well worth it. It's more than just a game itself.”

This was followed up with thoughts on what needs to be done to enhance diversity – including the hiring and promotion of Polynesian coaches.

“I think the biggest thing is, you know, typically when coaches get hired, you know, they're offensive coaches, typically they're quarterback coach and offensive coordinator, and so the more that you can have the Polynesians that are becoming offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches, I think that will be more of a stepping stone,” Simmer opined. “I know the NFL is doing a big thing on trying to promote a lot of extra minorities into those positions, but for defensive guys like Marvin and I, we're old school now. Looking for all the offensive guys.”

“I think it's been interesting that you mentioned the Polynesian descent, the quarterbacks of Polynesian descent, and how that has risen,” Lewis offered. “Which really back in your guys' day, that wasn't happening very often. Now I think the fact that those guys are now going through college, coming out of high school, going through college, and now going into the National Football League, when their careers are over, if they choose, there will be more. If they choose to go that path into coaching, now most of them may be smarter than that. But I think that we'll see, because like Mike said, that's the biggest thing. Unfortunately, in coaching, it can be for a lot of times, who you know initially until you get your foot in the door and can establish who you are and opportunity and your own path,” Lewis concluded.