Kela Miller of the Kahuku Alumni Association told Bedrock Sports Hawaii that the opening of the brand-new Kahuku High artificial turf field and synthetic track in 2022 will be be a major event.
Without a doubt, she said, the association is planning to go BIG.
Photo of Kahuku’s new artificial turf from a drone. (Image credit: Lesa Maiava, courtesy of Sterling Carvalho).
The specifics will be worked out later, but one can only guess that they will be bringing in the many former Kahuku sports standouts who went on to star in college and pro sports. As fans all around Hawaii know, there are no shortage of those Red Raiders alumni.
And so it would not be surprising to see people like current NFL players Alohi Gilman (Los Angeles Chargers) and Bradlee Anae (Dallas Cowboys practice squad), former NFL players like Aaron Francisco, Toniu Fonoti, Chris Kemoeatu, Makoa Freitas, Maake Kemoeatu and Chris Naeole, former Canadian Football League star Junior Ah You, and former Team USA soccer gold medalist Natasha Kai there. All of them have shown that they are proud of their North Shore roots, and all of them trained on the notorious, flood-prone grass/mud fields at the school.
And you can expect that the community and fan base that makes its way in droves to big Red Raiders games around the island will make the short trek to the school to be there for the momentous day.
The artificial turf with a Kahuku ‘K’ logo has already been installed and sports events are expected to start there at the start of the Fall 2022 sports season. The Kahuku football team has played all road games this season while the work is being done.
Kahuku head coach Sterling Carvalho, of course, can’t wait for a real, state-of-the-art field.”
“Right now, it’s still a dream because we haven’t stepped on it,” Carvalho told Bedrock Sports Hawaii. “It’s going to be great for games, but we’ll also be able to have quality practices. For the first time, we’ll be able to see out of bounds, the end zone and hash marks at practices. And we won’t have to worry about stepping in a hole, falling down, getting dirt burns. And when it rains, we won’t have to be in a mud bowl. We’ll be able to line up on real (painted) numbers and everyone will know exactly what 20 yards is. We’ll be able to tighten up pass routes and have better alignments.”
