‘Having a blast’
Morimoto happy in Montana
Jimmy Morimoto is a survivor. The former standout football player and head coach at Baldwin High School has climbed the mountain in college football — bouncing back from a stroke along the way — to become assistant athletic director in charge of football operations at the University of Montana.
“Having a blast, having lots of fun,” Morimoto said via phone from Missoula, Mont., on Monday morning. “In fact, I remember the first game that I was with the head coach running out of the tunnel there. You know, it’s a sold-out stadium and he looks at me and goes, ‘This is cool, huh?’ And I go, ‘Heck yeah, it is.’ ”
Morimoto was happy being a teacher and the head football coach at his alma mater — he rang up a 21-2-1 record in two seasons leading the Bears.
However, when the opportunity arose to jump into the world of college football in 2007 as assistant video coordinator and assistant recruiting coordinator at Nevada-Las Vegas, he didn’t hesitate to start his career climb from near the bottom.
It was Bobby Hauck, the current Montana head coach, who gave Morimoto that opportunity. Morimoto lasted through four different coaching staffs at UNLV — he was director of player personnel there from 2009-14.
He moved to Fresno State and held the same position for two seasons before becoming director of football operations at Hawaii for the 2017 season.
When Hauck called in January 2018 offering Morimoto his current job, Morimoto again could not pass up the opportunity, although it was not easy to leave his home state. He coordinates travel, logistics and scholarships, helps with recruiting and “just making sure the players and the coaches are taken care of.”
He loves the hometown vibe in Missoula.
“It’s a small community, it reminds me of Maui growing up and the aloha spirit,” Morimoto said. “People are always waving at you, people are always asking, ‘How can I help out?’ You know, all that good stuff. It reminds me of growing up back home in Kihei. It’s really a special thing.”
He recently recruited an offensive lineman from Hawaii Prep, which is coached by former Baldwin, Southern California and NFL player Kaluka Maiava. Morimoto was the defensive coordinator for Baldwin when Maiava was wreaking havoc on the Maui Interscholastic League as a linebacker.
“It was great because recruiting comes from the relationships that you build with high school coaches, but then even more so when you’ve got a coach who played for you,” Morimoto said. “It was cool to see one, Kaluka coaching, and then, two, to work with him to get one of his kids.”
Morimoto has been challenged recently by the Big Sky Conference season’s move to the spring due to COVID-19 concerns. The six-game, conference-only regular season begins on Feb. 27.
“We’re taking our same plan that we had going into the fall,” Morimoto said. “Our schedule is already out, so we have already started to plan for away games and whatnot. We’re just taking our plan for fall camp and turning it into spring camp, get the players ready, and attack the season.”
Morimoto said that the challenges from the pandemic affected him a lot more during the summer.
“Early summer, getting ready for August, that was very challenging,” he said. “Not knowing if we’d have a season, not knowing how many people would be allowed to gather at one place at one time — that part was just chaotic because we had to change our plans 10 different times.
“Talking with the head coach, we just said, ‘You know what? We can’t plan until the powers that be, whether it’s the NCAA, our state or even county set some rules that we can follow.’ … We had to hold off until someone gave us some direction.”
As always, the goal for the powerhouse Grizzlies program is to reach the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. There is still a little sting over missing the fall season, Morimoto said, but now the focus is firmly on the spring schedule.
“The NCAA, they did a good job freezing everyone’s eligibility, so they all get to come back,” he said. “If you’re a senior now you’re going to be a senior come August.”
With the early signing period starting Dec. 16, there is even more logistical challenges for Morimoto.
“Because the classes are frozen, the incoming high school seniors now coming in as freshmen, they will be in the same class as last year’s freshmen — that’s going to be a big class,” Morimoto said. “Right now, that’s not a big deal but in four years it will be when your senior class is 40 kids deep. That’s a lot of people to lose at one time. … We are planning on spreading our classes out better so we don’t get hit in four years.”
Morimoto knows that things are tough for Hawaii high school athletes right now as they sit on the sidelines due to the pandemic. He tries to use the path he has traveled to help Maui youths now and in the future.
“First of all, being in the position that I am there are so many people that help you along the way, you never forget about them, so thanking them I have to do, there’s a long list,” Morimoto said. “I hope it helps kids behind me, I’ve tried to recruit kids from Maui and Hawaii. … And hopefully we can help build them into good young men, husbands, fathers and good citizens in their communities, wherever they might end up.”