Puailoa named to SMHS Hall of Fame

SANDPOINT — This much is clear when talking with Sandpoint’s Satini Puailoa: If there is such a thing as a fountain of youth, he most definitely drinks from the water.

Puailoa, 55 years old and still brimming with energy and enthusiasm, was recently inducted into the San Marcos High School Hall of Fame, where he was a three-sport standout from 1972-74 and head football coach from 1986-93.

To gain insight into Puailoa, who is also in the Sandpoint High School Hall of Fame after coaching the Bulldog football team from 1994-2004 and winning the school’s lone state championship, consider that he’s giving serious thought to padding up and playing in an upcoming full contact alumni football game at San Marcos.

“If I go down there, I’m probably going to play, and I think I’ll wear No. 55, my age,” laughs Puailoa, who also played in a Sandpoint alumni game 13 years ago at the ripe young age of 42. “You only go around this world one time.”

Joining Puailoa in the 2011 San Marcos Hall of Fame class are an Olympic swimmer, who never lost a race in high school, and Al Everest, who is currently the special teams coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Each was inducted for their entire life’s work, not just their high school exploits.

Prior to his induction, Puailoa sat at a table with a prepared speech in mind, before a funny thing happened when his older brother Scott Puailoa, who was already in the Hall of Fame, got up to speak.

“He got up, unbeknownst to me, and introduces me,” recalls Puailoa, noting the two are the fourth set of siblings enshrined at San Marcos. “His induction speech for me was almost my exact speech.”

The special honor stirred some fond memories for the popular coach, who sat back and reflected on his time growing up in Santa Barbara, saying the movie Sandlot had nothing on him and his friends.

He recalled the bygone era of his youth, where he segued seamlessly from football to basketball to baseball. It wasn’t uncommon for Puailoa to play in front of football crowds with nearly 15,000 fans, and eight of the nine starters on the baseball team also played football together.

“That period of time, especially compared to now, it was literally Camelot. We weren’t afraid of anything, just went from sport to sport to sport,” describes Puailoa, calling his high school teammates, coaches and parents one big, happy family. “When football was over, if I didn’t come out for wrestling or basketball, I was met by a cadre of coaches. We were the scrappy guys from the neighborhood. We were thick as thieves in everything we did.”

Puailoa went on to play three seasons in college as a running back at Cal Poly, and eventually took over the football program at his high school alma mater. He coached a number of players who went on to play college in his seven years at San Marcos, but none more famous than starting middle linebacker and team captain Chuck Liddell, who would go on to become a household name in mixed martial arts.

Puailoa would leave the San Marcos post for the head coaching job at Sandpoint, and during a 10-year stint would revitalize a program and captured the school’s only state championship in 1997. While he still teaches P.E. at SHS, he hasn’t coached football in 10 years, at least in any official capacity, but doesn’t rule out a return to coaching should the right opportunity come along.

He still trains athletes, still gives an occasional coaching clinic and still tries to run a five-second flat 40-yard dash, joking that he doesn’t want to become some old guy who turns into a jogger.

“I don’t ever want to grow up,” laughs Puailoa, adding his favorite part about sports is the journey you take with your buddies. “Both in coaching and playing, I don’t think there’s anything else that brings people together like that.”