Some are only beginning to take note of St. Louis School and its win-streak dating back to September of 2016. But that level of success is nothing new for the Crusaders.

If you aren’t familiar with the history of the Catholic prep squad yourself, consider this: Notre Dame commit Jordan Botelho and his 28 consecutive victories and three state titles could only dream of reaching the heights in which the St. Louis squads of past eras ascended to.

But instead of dreaming, Botelho is leading the revival of one of the richest histories of winning football programs in America. It’ll take a Hawaiian high school football history lesson to understand how, but his effort in that revival is certainly worth recounting.

In the 1980s, the pioneer of Hawaiian high school football built a juggernaut at St. Louis School when local legend Cal Lee returned to the small, all-boys Catholic prep school which originated in 1846.

According to the current strength and conditioning coach Marcus Kimura who offers far more than his job description suggests, this was much more than ‘getting the band back together.’ This was the originator of what’s given countless young Hawaiians goals to work toward success and the tools to accomplish those goals.

Coach Kimura knows this well because he was a Crusader himself, even if baseball was his path away from the Hawaiian Islands for a time.

“Coach Cal Lee, he basically created what was the original dynasty in Hawaii football,” Kimura said.

“He basically took St. Louis which is a small Catholic School, they were able to form superpower teams that were virtually unstoppable.”

Kimura wasn’t kidding when he mentioned ‘superpower,’ citing the 14 consecutive state championships claimed by the Crusaders between 1985 and 1999, a record of 55-straight victories set during that era.

By the time Lee left the program in 2001, many who competed under his watch were making names for themselves on bigger stages, like two-time NFL All-Pro center Olin Kreutz and his pro career of more than a dozen years with the Chicago Bears for all but one season.

There was Timmy Chang in the class of 2000 who still holds the record for the second-most career passing yards with 17,027 out of Hawaii before stops in the NFL and CFL. And don’t forget ’98 class quarterback Jason Gesser named Pac-12 Co-Offensive Player of the Year alongside Carson Palmer in ’02.

Of course, placekicker Reggie Ho who helped Notre Dame squeeze by Michigan and others in the 1988 state championship season is in the memories of long-time Fighting Irish faithful.

However, with Lee out the door, the state titles went with him.

Over the following ten seasons, the Crusaders earned just one top honor. But it was when that slump came to an end that hope was born for St. Louis, even if no one knew it for more than a year.

When the storied Catholic school fell on hard times among more than just the football field, the quarterback who won the 2010 state championship had orchestrated a 12-1 season in 2012 as a redshirt freshman before his Fiesta Bowl win and Pac-12 All-Conference First-Team honors among new Pac-12 records and more accolades.

That quarterback was Marcus Mariota who chose the Ducks over Memphis – his only two scholarship offers out of St. Louis. And although he made an ESPN cover as the Heisman favorite in 2014, that prediction fell short. Instead, an unanimous All-American nod would have to suffice.

Foregoing the draft, Honolulu was prouder than ever as the Heisman was finally hoisted by Mariota in 2015, and perhaps even more proud when he signed a $24.2 million contract as the No. 2 overall NFL Draft Pick of 2015.

While some in Honolulu surely wondered if or when another nationally-known passer would surface, help was on its way.

“Right after Mariota won the Heisman and got drafted second-overall, for anybody, that was a big deal but here in Hawaii, it was a big deal, and at St. Louis, it was a big deal,” Kimura said. “But, ‘boom,’ just like that, we had this kid Tua Tagovailoa come up as a sophomore, you know?”

“With that, I kind of called that era ‘The Reign of Tua.’ For three years, he essentially dominated the high school ranks here with a rocket arm, great running abilities, man, and this brought even more interest into St. Louis.”

Long before the former five-star quarterback threw a 41-yard touchdown strike in overtime to win the 2017-2018 National Championship for Alabama, Tagovailoa was the source of an all-time high excitement in Honolulu. And that’s when that energy reached new heights.

“At that point, when Tua was a sophomore, the legendary coach, coach Cal Lee came back to St. Louis,” Kimura said. “He was the architect of the original dynasty here on the islands.”

Lee’s return wasn’t followed by championships until St. Louis School’s graduating class of 2020 began to fill the depth chart as underclassmen with goals that surpassed starting roles. It was a group inspired by Mariota as youngsters who dreamed of getting a taste of that special success themselves.

“With coach Cal coming back, and Tua becoming a sophomore, you kind of had this perfect storm. Coach Cal here on the Islands, he’s kind of like the Godfather. (laughs). He’s definitely the Godfather of football.”

After Tagovailoa’s illustrious career, that 2020 class began to take shape in the form of a unit that would represent the re-birth of Cal Lee’s dynasty. And leading the charge of that effort crucial to not only the football program but St. Louis School altogether was Notre Dame commit Jordan Botelho.

Alongside teammate and current Top 150 Wisconsin outside linebacker commit Nick Herbig, Botelho bought-in to Kimura’s program that was centered on far more than just strength and conditioning. The greater goal was re-installing the culture of dominance once fueling the Crusaders through the 1990s.

Cal Lee was back to facilitate it. It would eventually be up to Botelho & Co. to accomplish it.

With Tagovailoa heading off to Alabama after marking the first state championship in six years – the 2016-2017 season title – he essentially got the ball rolling on the bottom-line goal of Botelho and what is now more than a half-dozen Division 1-bound classmates of his like Herbig and California defensive tackle commit Stanley McKenzie.

“Our 2020 boys bought into the training early on and we continued to just work,” McKenzie said. “We’ve kind of (have) a core group of guys that have been working together from our freshman year.”

Leading the charge of that effort and building the most personal success through it has been Botelho, the consensus No. 1 college prospect in Hawaii. The recognized ferocious presence in the Irish commit provided the type of edge teammates like McKenzie have used as fuel in their own battles.

“Jordan (Botelho’s) work ethic is second to none and it’s paid off dividends for him,” McKenzie said. “In eighth and ninth grade, we’ve always played alongside each other on the D-line and I always knew he had my back. Jordan brings so much intensity to the game and it rubs off of all of us. He always goes hard no matter what down it is. Iron sharpens Iron.”

Since the departure of Tagovailoa, Botelho has led that 2020 group to 23-straight wins and two state titles, the type of multiple-season dominance that’s been absent at St. Louis since the 90s, the era Kimura hoped to replicate.

The accomplishment of the goal put in place from the outset is well underway as proven by the MaxPreps preseason ranking of No. 11 overall in the country. This puts them ahead of Bishop Gorman at No. 17 who the Crusaders take on at home on August 30.

Meanwhile, just like former Irish linebacker Manti Te'o was out of Punahou, just like Mariota and Tagovailoa were before him at St. Louis, Botelho is the pride of the Hawaiian Islands, the athlete youngsters take pride in as one that stacks up with the best in America.

“Jordan is a low-key statewide celebrity,” Kimura said. “He’ll definitely be getting a lot more attention as this football season gets going. He means a lot to us. Right now, Jordan is the Poster Boy of Hawaiian high school football.

“His value to this school and this program, I don’t think even Mariota had the same respect at the time.

“Botelho is just this beast of a linebacker – this physical force of nature as strong as an ox.”

Today marks the season opener for St. Louis who take on Kapolei, the program which produced Notre Dame defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, the cousin of Tua Tagovailoa who prepares for his season opener versus Duke in just over two weeks.

Keep in mind, all of this success has grown from a school with less than 900 students from kindergarten through grade 12, a remarkable history of winning that is back in full swing thanks in large part to the leadership and devotion of Notre Dame’s next blue-chip defensive end.