While Kahuku High begins its search for a new head coach for its state championship football team, there is no doubt what the University of Hawai'i should be doing.

The Warriors should use this week's resignation of Siuaki Livai as an overdue opening to begin mending fences with all possible speed along the North Shore. There are a lot of them, nearly the length of Kamehameha Highway it sometimes seems, to attend to.

It isn't the 40-something miles of roadway that separate Hawai'i's high school powerhouse from the state's only college football program. There are many years of pent-up acrimony as well.

Relations were soured even before UH head coach June Jones' finger-pointing at a 2005 signing day press conference. That ill-advised gesture, born of a frustration he said that came from dealing with Livai in recruiting, merely took public the icy state of affairs that had existed behind the scenes.

For all of Jones' allegations about Livai steering recruits away from UH — charges denied by Livai — the denunciation further polarized the situation. For while some on the North Shore may have their issues with the former Kahuku coach, the community tends to rally around one of its own when an outsider attacks.

Just how much of an outsider UH had become in its own backyard was driven home, according to a story circulating in coaching circles, when a UH recruiter pulled into the Kahuku High parking lot during the 2006 recruiting campaign. A security guard, whose tone was initially described as welcoming, was said to have abruptly turned cold when the coach identified himself as being from UH. "I hate you guys,'' the guard was said to have replied.

Under the circumstances, UH getting two Red Raider recruits (Afa Bridenstine and Brysen Ginlack) — its only signees from Kahuku in two campaigns — might have been an amazing bit of salesmanship.

But with eight to 10 Kahuku players annually signing with Division I schools — four to Oregon State this year alone — there is so much more for UH to gain. Especially with the Red Raiders poised to field another championship contender and Kaniela Tuipulotu, a 6-foot-2, 261-pound defensive lineman, among the most sought-after prospects.

UH has a lot to sell — not the least of which being the success of recent Kahuku graduates Leonard Peters and Tala Esera, among others.

But the rewards will only come if UH and its most visible representative, Jones, earnestly and aggressively set about rebuilding ties with Kahuku. Livai's departure gives them an opportunity for a fresh start.

As luck would have it, the current NCAA-mandated "quiet period" in recruiting ends April 14 with an open evaluation period. By then Kahuku could have a new coach and UH should have a new attitude.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.