Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2007 — HELE NĀ KOA, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HELE NĀ KOA,

Anuenue's impressive football squad is the .... By Liza Siman | Public Affairs Specialist first ever for a Hawanan immersion school

Ask 'Olu'olu Nāone why he likes to play football - or pōpeku in 'Ōlelo Hawai 'i - and he blurts out a response that is hardly unusual for a 17-year-old boy: "You have physical contact like in no other game. It's intense. You get to hit." But the high school senior is quick to describe the unique aspects of playing for Ke Kula Kaiapuni 'O Ānuenue, the Hawaiian immersion school in

Palolo Valley. For starters, the Anuenue quarterback calls out plays in Hawaiian navigation

terms, whieh is mee tor Naone and many of his team-

mates who have p a d d 1 e d eanoe. Then

there's the play-by-play that crackles through the PA system in 'Ōlelo Hawai'i when Nā Koa (the "warriors"), as the team is known, is in action. Nāone, who this summer picked up an award for best running back at an all-Polynesian football eamp in Utah, says the sound of the indigenous language connects with so many lessons he has learned at Ānuenue. "When I do something right on the field, I don't get conceited. It's not for me; it's for my team, and it's also for my culture. It shows everyone that we as Hawaiians are somebody." Nāone's comments support the game plan that went into establishing Ānuenue's football team - the first for a Hawaiian immersion school just three years ago. "We wanted a football program that would be an extension of the Hawaiian immersion classroom," says Nā Koa head football eoaeh Kealohamākua Wengler. This meant not only field practice in 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, but also bringing Hawaiian values to the line of scrimmage. Wengler mentions kuleana (shared responsibility) and mākaukau (diligence) as comprising the Hawaiian conception of good sportsmanship. The great-grandson of noted Hawaiian language and culture authority Mary Kawena Pūku'i, Wengler exudes remarkable

ealm amid his players' boisterous drills in the Pālolo puhlie park that is Nā Koa's practice field. "We do without a lot of things that other schools take for granted," he notes. "We

don t have blocking sieds, tor exampie. We enter every game rated as the underdog. We have only grass and footballs."

But anyone who witnessed the Nā Koa varsity squad's last-minute, come-from-behind, 2827 victory over the Waialua Bulldogs in the team's first-ever televised game on Sept. 8 would say that what Ānuenue players do have in ample supply is heart. Wengler agrees: "In the Waialua game, you saw our kids get behind many times. Where other teams would give up, they rallied." Who would have thought that Ānuenue's total high school enrollment of 118 would be large enough to field a football team with both varsity and junior-varsity squads? Wengler, who began at Ānuenue as an academic eounselor, says even he was a bit skeptical

PĀ'ANI • SPŪRT

Above: Coach Kealohamākua Wengler teaches his players to bring Hawaiian values to the line of scrimmage. Left: Nō Koa (The Warriors) snap the ball against the Waialua Bulldogs in the first-ever televised football game featuring a Hawaiian immersion school. - Photos: Blaine Fergerstrom ^