Former Hawaii QB Bryant Moniz leads youth clinic

LIHUE — A handful of Kauai’s youth football players had the chance to work out with a past Rainbow Warrior on Friday.

Former University of Hawaii quarterback Bryant Moniz led a clinic at Isenberg Park.

“I thought we got a lot of work in today. In the hour-and-a-half, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Moniz said. “We got to cover a lot of things. I hope that the kids were able to take away a few pointers that I tried to give them and implement that into their game, and help them as they move forward into their football careers.”

Among the handful of attendees were two quarterbacks who play in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation.

“It was a good learning experience I had with coach Bryant,” said Waimea High School junior Lacin Montemayor. “I learned a lot of stuff, a lot of new stuff.”

Something Montemayor learned during the clinic was using his hips to throw.

“Putting my hip into the throw more, that was the first (thing we worked on),” Montemayor said. “It was good — more power was added to my ball.”

The other KIF quarterback who attended was Kauai High School junior Kona Asano. He said his big takeaway from the clinic was the importance of footwork.

“The footwork he made us do was different from what we do,” Asano said. “It was pretty good. I liked it.”

Moniz played for UH from 2009-11. He’s currently signed to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

“I’ve gathered a lot of knowledge from my time in football. It’d be a waste if I didn’t share it with anybody else. That’s what I’m doing out here today,” Moniz said. “One thing that we got to work a lot on that I think they weren’t comfortable with was developing more power through their legs, through their core and firing from their hip, which I thought would definitely help them be better quarterbacks.”

In Hamilton, Moniz will join Tiger-Cats head coach and former UH head coach June Jones.

“Very exciting. I missed playing for Coach Jones, who was somebody that I’d seen on TV,” Moniz said. “(He was) the coach of the Warriors before I got to be a Warrior. So, I’m excited to work for him.”

Moniz hopes his time with the kids inspires them to accomplish their goals.

“I just tried to share with them a little bit at the end a quick synopsis of my story where, I wasn’t a (scholarship) guy. I wasn’t scouted out of high school,” he said. “But through hard work and putting in hours and hours of working on my craft, I was able to elevate my game and pass guys who maybe didn’t. I tried to share with them that whatever their dream is, they can achieve that through countless hours of putting in work. It ain’t going to be easy, but it’s definitely achievable.”