6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 5-11, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com 831 The Hawaii boys are in Salinas. Hartnell College football has targeted the Aloha State for a huge chunk of its out-of-state recruits, with 16 players hailing from eight different high schools spread across Hawaii. Last season, the roster had just a couple of players from Hawaii, and that ballooned this year, standing out against a primarily local roster from Gonzales, Alisal, Salinas and Greenfield high schools. “The amount of Hawaii boys makes it a home away from home,” freshman quarterback Mana Forges says. He’s from Honolulu, where he went to Kamehameha High School. Coach Art Berlanga says that they liked Hawaii because it was full of talent—and underrecruited. The kids are at a disadvantage immediately because of geography, says Coach Jason Lenich, who focused on recruiting in Hawaii. Travel to and from the islands is an expensive, fivehour flight, requiring a steep time and monetary commitment from both families of players and from coaches. As Lenich recruited linebacker Ryan Peters and Forges, they started to tell him about other players he should look out for, too. “Mana would tell me a friend to reach out to, or Ryan,” Lenich says. “It was a domino effect.” The Hawaiian contingent became a big reason that Peters and Forges were willing to travel 2,400 miles from the tropics of the islands to Salinas. Hartnell hardly resembles Hawaii. “I think being from Hawaii helped me fight through adversity,” Peters says. “There’s a lot of tragedy that happens around the islands, and if it happens on one island, it’s felt by all the islands.” Despite coming into a new team, they’re not coming into a completely new social circle—Peters says that many of his former teammates from Kapaa High School came to Hartnell alongside him, and he met Forges before their freshman year at Kamehameha High School. “Short” was Forges’ first impression of Peters four years ago. “Chubby” was Peters’ first of him. “I wasn’t very good either,” Forges admits. But they clicked, Peters says. They remained friends, and after Peters switched high schools, they eventually got back in contact when they realized they were both going to Hartnell. Their moms are even friends. And now, they live together. Hawaiian players certainly aren’t the whole team—Berlanga notes that they look for competitiveness in all recruits. With the challenge of creating a cohesive ,nearly all-freshman team just six weeks before their season opener against San Joaquin Delta, the team was up against a steep learning curve. “We didn’t get enough time to grow, we didn’t go through enough to be as close,” Forges says. “Now that we’ve lost games we were supposed to win, it’s brought the team closer in general.” After interviews with the Weekly, the Panthers played for the American Golden Coast Conference title, but they fell to an undefeated Shasta 30-27 in overtime, breaking their undefeated streak in conference play. Despite the loss, the season still strides ahead of the Hartnell team that won no conference games two years ago. This season, they also achieved their first shutout since 2019 when they won 36-0 against Contra Costa. They’ll have one more chance for a winning season against Gavilan on Saturday, Nov. 7. Under their feet for the first time are also the magenta and gold stripes of a brand-new football field, which was particularly special for Berlanga, who recalls being a player from 20012003, an assistant coach from 2013-16, and now the head coach. “With the new field, it’s home,” Berlanga says. “Before that, everything was a road game. You’ve got to get on the bus, load things up and drive across town. It’s a home game, but it’s not really a home game.” The Hawaiian players have inspired new events—the team is having a luau for the first time on Nov. 20 to raise money for the team. Berlanga says that’s never happened before. “I think almost every night we’re at someone’s house from Hawaii, all the Hawaii boys hanging out or talking about home,” Forges says. They talk about the people compared to home, food, stories from home, their high schools and more. “There’s definitely a community.” Aloha, Salinas A contingent of Hawaiian players dominates the Hartnell College football roster this season. By Chrissa Olson “The Hawaii boys make it a home away from home.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DANIEL DREIFUSS Hartnell College’s Mana Forges throws a pass during the Panthers’ Oct. 31 football game against Shasta College. Forges is one of 16 players from Hawaii on the team’s roster this season.
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