McKinley is proud to welcome back a former student to coach its football team. Joe Cho, who played for McKinley in the 1970s, has returned to Oahu to take over the head coaching duties.

His experience: Cho has coached and taught in the Oregon school system for the past 38 years.

His mission: To get McKinley back on the trend mill of winning.

His weapons: A pair of speedy receivers and a standout defensive unit.

Cho left Oahu to attend Willamette University, where he was recruited to play both football and basketball. After graduation Cho decided to stay in Oregon where he held a variety of coaching jobs in both football and basketball.
“I’m finally returning home. After my football days at McKinley, I decided to attend college in Salem, Oregon and never left. I was one of those kids who were recruited by one of the Lee brothers, the older brother, Tommy Lee from the Saint Louis clan,” Cho said. “So I ended up staying. However, I never forgot home. When the opportunity opened up for me to come back to Hawaii, it wasn’t a difficult conclusion in deciding to come back.” 

With strong roots still remaining in Hawaii, Cho wondered for years if he would ever return back to the islands.
“My children love it here and I have lots of relatives all over the island. Certainly I’m happy to be back in Hawaii,” Cho said. “This is my first job in Hawaii coming from the mainland. But I was born and raised here, went to school here, played four years here, graduated in 1972, and obviously learned my football here. Then obviously took it to another level up on the mainland. And hopefully I can bring some of coaching techniques I learned back in Oregon here,” Cho emphasized.

Being able to have the opportunity to coach at his alter mater is a dream job according to Cho. This August 13th Cho will coach his first game for McKinley as the Tigers take on Moanalua in a pre-season road game. Cho says this will be a moment he will always cherish. “Over the years I’ve managed to coach numerous teams, but I never imagined that I would have an opportunity to return to my former school and coach a team I once played for,” Cho said.

Cho says he won’t waste any time utilizing the wide receiver duo of Solomon Dixon and Jason Guan. “These two guys have decent wheels and we are going to find a way to get them the ball as much as we need to,” Cho said.
McKinley will run a combination of a spread offense and an I-formation utilizing the tight ends.

Dixon, who will sign a letter of intent with Idaho this November, says he welcomes the challenge of playing for a very experienced coach.  “We have a new coach come here from Oregon and he has really done a good job in teaching us some good points about the game of football,” Dixon said. “Our goal this season is to make the playoffs and hopefully win enough games so that the school can move back into the Red Division (of the Oahu Interscholastic Association).”

But Dixon is aware that he must also focus on being a student so he can further his education.  “The coaches here just don’t focus on football only. The coaches are always telling us that we should be a student first before being an athlete. I agree because I really want to continue to do well in my classes so that when I get to Idaho I will be adjusted to learning at a high level,” Dixon said.

“Since this is early in the school year, right now I’ve been going to the gym a lot working on my conditioning to prepare for the roughness of the college game,” Dixon added. “At the gym that I go to there’s a linebacker who now plays for Idaho who goes there also. He has really made me feel right at home and made me feel like a brother.”

Guan says he enjoys competing with Dixon and is looking forward to a season of success.“Dixon is a wonderful teammate and he helps bring out the competitiveness in me,” Guan said. “I think our team has a real good chance at getting into the playoffs, both at the league and state tournaments. But we have to stay focused and believe in ourselves.”

Defensively, McKinley will be anchored by linebackers Jhonatan Nagasako and Joshua Sagupolutele. “Our defense runs a 3-5 with three men down at the line and five linebackers,” Nagasako said. “With five linebackers we get to have more freedom in mixing up plays and rushing the passer.”  Sagupolutele added, “I love to hit. And with this defense we are able to charge the person who has the ball and concentrate on tackling them before they get into the secondary.”
McKinley plays league games against Waipahu, Kaimuki, Kalaheo, Waialua, Kalani, Nanakuli, and Anuenue.