2020 in Review: Gilman followed example set by family and reached his goal

Alaka'i Gilman spent years working toward his ultimate goal to sign with Stanford football in February, 2020.

It wasn't easy and the path took a brief detour, but he never lost the optimism founded on confidence that he'd put in the work to end up where he wanted. He also benefited from following the example of his brother, Alohi, who is expected to be drafted by an NFL team after a successful playing career at Navy and Notre Dame.

Alaka'i shared the story of his recruiting journey, but the conversation with Cardinal Sports Report began with an unexpected favorite music genre.

So, Alaka’i there are a lot of things we can talk about but it caught my eye on your Stanford bio that you like 1980’s R&B music. Your classmates also say you’re always asking for music recommendations. Where does the love for R&B music from a time well before you were born come from?

“With my parents, we grew up listening to their music … when we were working around the house or something. I fell in love with it as a kid. Honestly, all of my siblings have and we continue to listen to it. I think it’s just feel-good music. It’s a good vibe. It’s nothing too hectic. I like that kind of stuff.”

Do you have a favorite artist or song?

“I can’t say I have a favorite -- something like early New Edition kind of vibe. We’ve got Johnny Gill, Brian McKnight, Luther Vandross -- all of those guys.”

I’m going to say this is another example of a future Stanford student-athlete showing off his diverse education. Speaking of Stanford, how far did it go for you that you wanted to attend Stanford?

“Honestly it was back in eighth grade. I went to one of my first padded caps at UH (University of Hawaii) and Stanford was there. I was super interested in them since then. I found out about Coach (Duane) Akina and I started to do some research. I just knew that he was the type of coach who develops kids, coaches them hard. He knows a lot about the game.

“I knew that if I had a chance to get coached by him and go to a school like Stanford, I’m getting the best of both worlds.”

Then you camped at Stanford after your freshman and sophomore years. It seems clear this was an offer you were pursuing from the start. What was your mindset about it?

“I sat down with my dad prior to the recruiting process and he asked me what was my dream school. I told him I wanted to play for Stanford; I wanted to play for Coach Akina. He told me if that’s what I want to do then the necessary steps I needed to take was going to camps, talking with coaches, going to the junior days.

“All that stuff happened. I went to the camps freshman and sophomore years. Junior year I went to junior day. And then it all just ended up working out. There was a plan set for me and I trusted in it.

“I put up on my wall in eighth grade -- it got taken down because it got beaten up -- a note or a sign next to a poster that Stanford sent me and it said: ‘I’m going to sign my letter of intent to Stanford on February 1, 2020’. I had that on my wall since eighth grade. I saw it every day and that’s what I went out to go get.

“I took some different paths at times, but I ended up where I needed to be.”

When you committed to Washington State what was going through your mind about whether Stanford was going to be possible? Were you still hopeful?

“I was still optimistic. I knew that Stanford could be here if I worked for it and kept in contact with Coach Akina and asked him where I was on the board. He was super open with me and super honest with me and let me know how it all went.

“Washington State was great. I had a chance to visit there. I felt like I needed a little insurance. I wanted to make sure I had an opportunity.”

To have Stanford as a goal when you were in middle school, what influenced you to think that way?

“It came from my brother and my dad and also it was me really wanting to go to a school like that. I saw the opportunities that I could have there at the university and I’d have a special coach like Coach Akina and Coach (David) Shaw.

“But I think it just came from seeing my brother go through what he went through with the recruiting process and now he’ll be in the NFL. Also, my dad really set a certain standard in this household to dream big, dream what we want to dream, and then go get after it. We set that down and it all worked out.”

Your brother attended the Naval Academy first and in terms of academic rigor it’s one of the top schools in the country. Was that part of the process that you saw with your brother that he was going to a school like that?

“Yeah. I’ve always wanted a school that could challenge me academically and help me get a good degree to help set my life up for life after college. Stanford has all those things, obviously.

“Seeing him go through it at Navy, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Ever since going into high school at Punahou where it’s really academically rigorous I knew it wouldn’t be too far of a shot. Also, talking with kids who went to Stanford from Punahou they told me that Punahou is good at preparing us for schools like that. I wasn’t shy from that kind of challenge.”

Punahou also has a great football program. How would you describe your trajectory as a football player and when did you see that college coaches were noticing you as a prospect?

“I think it actually started in the eighth grade camp that I went to. I was going to be in ninth grade and during the three day camp I started off with my age group. My dad knew that wasn’t going to help me develop so he came to the line, grabbed me by the neck (laughs), yelled at me in front of everybody: ‘If you want to challenge yourself, if you want to get an opportunity with all these coaches who are here, you go take one-on-one reps with the seniors’.

“So, I was taking one-on-one reps against Tua Tagovailoa. He was slinging balls with other guys and I’m 14 or 15 years old going against these guys and I was terrified. I made some plays and I think I made a good name for myself then and coaches noticed me but I was still young.

“After that moment I gained some confidence. I knew that I could hang a little bit. The confidence just grew from that moment.

“My brother was also there in my ear and talking to me about what I needed to do. He has been a huge help in my development because he’s like my mentor. He’s seen it on every level and every time he comes home we shoot ideas at each other. He tells me to level my game up mentally.”

I’m curious what your take is on the evaluation of you among recruiting reporters. Most people say you’re a great instinctual playmaker and that you need to improve quickness and speed. What do you think about that?

“I think it’s true. Quickness and speed is always a good thing for me to develop. It’s coming along well as my body develops as well. I’m getting faster and stronger every day. I feel like I’ve gained in those areas.

“My brand of football is physical first and then hawking the ball down wherever it is. I feel like those are accurate.”

What is your impression so far of the other DBs in the class?

“All of these guys are football people. They understand the game well and you can tell they take the game seriously. I know with our DB class we’re going to be deep and good because we have guys from different backgrounds and playing styles.

“We got to know everybody during the Big Visit to build the camaraderie and build cohesiveness because when our time comes it will help us on the field.”

What are you able to work on now as an athlete? I imagine you’re not going to the gym anymore or anything like that. What are you trying to accomplish before you get to Stanford?

“My brother came home. He was in Dallas training but he had to come home. Since he came home he has been a big help for me. We’ve been training at my uncle’s house. He has a gym there with everything we need. We’re there every day.

“He’s helped me a lot to improve my strength and quickness and speed. The one thing that I really take away from what he’s giving me is the mental side of it. We’ll sit down with my dad maybe once or twice a week and jump on the whiteboard to talk about schemes.

“We’ll pull up the playbook and he’ll help me understand it -- the different formations, personnel types, splits on the field. The knowledge that he has gained has only helped me because he’s able to share it with me.

“Knowing all those things and being deep in the playbook before I get to Stanford is important because you can’t play if you don’t know the plays. If I can do that before I come in it will set myself up.”

I have to add that I just saw on your bio that you like to play “pogs” and I had to look up what that is. So, with pogs and 80s R&B there is a little bit of an old-school vibe with how you spend your time.

“Yeah, man. That’s how we do it out here. There’s not really much. I live on the countryside of the island. I don’t live in the city. We’re a small town. There’s not much to do around here other than the beach and hanging out with family and friends.

“Pogs has been around since I was a kid. It’s kind of like a season around here. We’ve got hot, rainy and pog season.

“You can tell when everyone is playing pogs. You see the kids lining up at the park. You see kids after school on the sidewalks playing pogs with each other. It’s intense sometimes. You’ll see kids roll around with their ice cream buckets full of pogs to show off to everybody. It’s a pastime and now my little brothers are deep into it.”