Anchorage Daily News

Thousands of miles from Alaska on an Army base in northeast Kansas, Fenumiai Ilalio Jr. is preparing for war with a cell phone in his back pocket. He's waiting for it to buzz, anticipating news from the home front.

Ilalio is a full-time member of the Alaska Army National Guard and a part-time assistant football coach for the Service Cougars. He hasn't been on the field with the team since he was sent to Fort Riley in August, but when the Cougars take the field today to battle Juneau-Douglas for the state high school football championship, Ilalio will very much be a part of the team.

Soon Ilalio, 41, will be shipped to Afghanistan, but for now he's still in charge of dictating Service's offense, a coach whose command of X's and O's brought the Cougars a new playbook and a winning record.

He delivered a pre-game pep talk to the Cougars on Friday evening via speaker phone. And come game time, he'll rely on technology to keep his head in the game -- just as he has all season.

From texting coaches during games to staying up late in his barracks to watch videotape and make notes on upcoming opponents to his wife relaying radio play-by-play from her car, the master sergeant still helps run the show.

"I never thought I'd have to coach from this far away," he said earlier this week from Fort Riley, where he had just finishing firing .50-caliber weapons. "It's taking away my sleep time, but it's all been worth it."

Ilalio's coaching office is a crowded 40-man, open-bay barrack. His desk is the bottom of a bunk bed. His desk lamp is an Army-issued camouflage flashlight. And his window to Alaska's high school football world is his laptop.

A few days before Service played North Pole in last weekend's semifinals, Ilalio spent all day firing 9mm and M-4 assault rifles. That night, his battalion practiced aiming their weapons with laser beams.

By the time he returned to his bunk, it was 1:30 in the morning. But his work was hardly complete.

Ilalio tied his flashlight to one of the thin metal rods that crisscross the bunk above his head, plugged in his laptop and inserted the DVD of a previous North Pole game that Service coaches had sent him via Express Mail.

With 39 other soldiers sound asleep inside the dark quarters, Ilalio worked quietly in the glow of his flashlight, his computer muted to preserve the silence.

He scribbled notes every time North Pole ran a play he thought Service could exploit.

Every now and then a soldier woke up to go to the bathroom. One of them thought Ilalio was watching an NFL game.

"They know I love football," Ilalio said.

'THEY DIDN'T WIN'

A month before the season started, Ilalio -- who goes by the nickname Numi -- knew he would have to leave midseason for the Lower 48. Telling the team broke his heart.

A native of Samoa and a 17-year member of the National Guard, Ilalio has dedicated the last three years of his life to Service football.

"He's so much a part of what we've done here in the past three years," Service head coach Jason Caldarera said. "He did a tremendous job creating a winning attitude."

The season before Ilalio's arrival in 2006, the program that once was an Alaska powerhouse was in shambles. Service was in its second phase of rebuilding after it had dominated most of the 1990s, winning four state titles from 1994 to 1999.

In the 16 games before he joined the team, Service won only once. Caldarera needed to make a change. So he recruited Ilalio, a well-respected offensive coordinator with a record of turning programs around.

Ilalio had just spent four seasons running the offense at East High, where he helped the T-birds capture a 2003 state title -- their first since 1990.

Before East, Ilalio coached the offense at Juneau-Douglas for four seasons. In his third season in 1999, the Crimson Bears made the playoffs for the first time in program history.

Coaching Service, however, was his biggest challenge.

"People thought I was crazy for going there," Ilalio said. "They didn't win."

Brown Faaaliga was a sophomore when he first met Ilalio. The Cougars were running tackling drills when Ilalio, a physically intimidating man, confronted Faaaliga and asked, "Who taught you how to tackle?"

Faaaliga was speechless.

"Take everything you have learned about football and forget about it," Ilalio ordered.

Ilalio was so disturbed by the number of mistakes he saw that he asked Caldarera for the playbook.

Caldarera handed it over. "That's not a playbook," Ilalio said. At least not a playbook that was going to get the Service offense back on track.

So he rewrote it.

Ilalio is tough on players, but Caldarera said they took a liking to him right away. So did Caldarera, even though bringing him on board was a humbling experience because it meant turning the offense over to Ilalio.

"As head coach, sometimes you have to step aside, put your ego aside and let people do the things they're effective at doing," Caldarera said.

'MY EYES OUT THERE'

Ilalio says his wife, Terri, knows more about football than any coach in Anchorage. He might be right.

Ilalio left for Fort Riley on Aug. 18, the week before Service's big south-side showdown against rival South. Terri's assignment in his absence: relay radio broadcasts of Service games to her husband.

The day of the South game, Terri sat in her car in the parking lot of Anchorage Football Stadium, turned on the radio and put her cell phone up to the speakers. On the other end was her husband, who listened more and more frantically as the game went on: Service was trailing and its quarterback had just thrown his fifth interception.

"I was so mad I wanted to come through the phone," Ilalio said. "What the hell were we doing throwing the ball?"

He hung up the cell phone and texted adjustments to defensive line coach Kevin Kern, who stood above the press box at the stadium. Kern relayed the information to Tim Davis, Ilalio's on-field replacement as offensive coordinator, through his headset.

But his fixes came too late. The Cougars lost by a touchdown.

During last week's game against North Pole, Terri sat in the bleachers and texted him a play-by-play account of the action.

"Sometimes she's my eyes out there," he said.

Ilalio's assignment today probably will prevent him from spending too much time following the game. His battalion is training to respond to ambush attacks and save lives.

He'll still have his cell phone with him, though. Terri will have hers too, although this time her only assignment is to call at the end of the game with the score.

"I don't expect her to be listening to the game in her car," he said. "But I do expect her phone is fully charged."

Find Kevin Klott online at adn.com/contact/kklott or call 257-4335.

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