Former Campbell HC and current Kapolei OC Amosa Amosa instructs a player during a Kapolei practice during the summer. Crizalmer Caraang Jr. | SL

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EWA BEACH — This was all very surreal for Amosa Amosa.

After serving as head football coach at his alma mater for nine seasons, he found himself on the "other" sideline Friday night. In his first game as offensive coordinator at Kapolei, Amosa faced off against his old team: Campbell.

Amosa's "return" to the Ewa Beach school (he still teaches there), was strange for him, to say the least.

"It was … different. You know, the last nine years I was on the other side of the field," said the former standout offensive lineman at both Campbell and later the University of Hawaii.

"In fact, today was our work day at school and I was so nervous and so much butterflies, but it's funny, when my son dropped me off for the JV game, I felt really good," Amosa said.

Amosa is the latest in a long line of offensive coordinators at Kapolei under its coach Darren Hernandez. Days after he was not retained by Campbell following the 2016 season, Amosa took the OC job with the Hurricanes, replacing former UH coach June Jones, who left to take an athletics director job at Saint Louis.

"It's such a blessing to be there and for Darren to give me this opportunity," Amosa said.

Hernandez and Amosa go back to their days growing up in Ewa Beach. The two were teammates both at Campbell and UH. When Hernandez was hired as head coach at Campbell in 1994, his first hire was Amosa at OC.

"Me and Darren know that we love our schools, but our job as coaches is to help our kids at Kapolei and it's been a blessing being there," said Amosa, who posted a 56-41 coaching record at Campbell. "I think one of the biggest blessings is I don't have the responsibility of being a head coach. So just coming here and Darren allowing me to do our offense, I don't have too much on my plate so I'm happy."

Amosa reiterated the fact that there are no hard feelings toward Campbell or its new coaching staff, which is headed by former Kahuku and Kaimuki coach Darren Johnson.

"I'm happy for DJ getting the job, but it's kind of funny coming back to my school and being on the opposite side," Amosa said with a smile.

As for the game? It was a successful return for Amosa, as the Hurricanes pulled away with 16 unanswered points to break open a 7-all first-quarter tie.

Junior quarterback Kaniala Kalaola completed 16 of his 25 passes in the second half and finished with 220 yards on 21-of-40 passing. He threw three touchdown passes, but was also intercepted three times.

All but one of Kapolei's 12 first downs came through the air. It was just 2 of 14 on third-down conversions, but 4 of 5 on fourth downs.

"The boys did very good tonight. Our offense, I think because we only had one scrimmage, I think that was a big step up from last week when we scrimmaged Kahuku," Amosa said. "I think (Kalaola) did a nice job distributing the ball tonight to his receivers and I know that one thing we've got to work on is getting our running game going to help us out with some of the things we do, but other than that I thought we played a good game tonight."

The Hurricanes, who are ranked third in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Power Rankings, will hit the road again next week when they visit No. 6 Waianae to open the Oahu Interscholastic Association season Saturday night.