This year, they really jammed in the holidays and the high school football together like no other year in Hawaii.
It was unavoidable. COVID-19 caused many delays and so organizers did a grand job in just getting a full season in.
With so much going on, Bedrock Sports Hawaii did not name a player of the week after the Open and Division I championship games on Dec. 23. The original plan was to name just one player of the week (for both weeks) after the Dec. 30 Division II title game.
But as it turns out, there are two deserving of the honor, so we’ve decided to name one Christmas Player of the Week and one New Year’s Player of the Week.
Kau Lana Kaluna of Kahuku, who teammates and coaches call Lalio, is Bedrock’s Christmas Player of the Week. He rushed for 138 yards and three touchdowns in the Red Raiders’ 49-14 victory over Saint Louis in the champi0nship game Dec. 23.
This is what Kaluna said afterward: “We went 110 percent on each and every play and I trusted my brothers, the other 10 guys on the field, and at the end of the day, we just did our business. Without my linemen, nothing would be possible because they create the holes for me and without the running lanes they made, I wouldn’t have been able to make those runs.”
Kau Lana Kaluna, right, sang the school alma mater with Kahuku teammates after the title game win.
Most impressive about Kaluna’s performance was the passion and quickness he showed in hitting those holes. He scored two of the touchdowns early to get a big jump on the Crusaders, but he was super effective in the second half. Coach Sterling Carvalho talked about how Kaluna running behind his offensive line effectively out closed Saint Louis in those final 24 minutes.
After the game, Kaluna also mentioned a player from Kahuku’s last state championship team in 2015 as being instrumental in helping him this year.
“I really want to thank my running backs coach Kesi Ah-Hoy,” Kaluna said. “He really helped me a lot this year and unfortunately he wasn’t able to be here to watch.”
Ah-Hoy, running mostly out of a wildcat/elephant package formation, ran the ball 30 times for 103 yards and two TDs in the Red Raiders’ 39-14 win over Saint Louis in the 2015 title game.
An added gesture gave more reason to give Kaluna, the 5-feet, 11-inch, 200-pound senior running back, the Christmas player of the week honor. When invited to do a postgame interview with OC 16, he called out, “Offensive line. Offensive line.” He was looking for those bulls up front and would not go over for the interview without them also being there in front on the TV camera.
Bedrock’s New Year’s player of the week is Kapaa’s Solomone Malafu. The link to his story is below.
Bedrock Names New Year’s (And Christmas) Football Players Of The Week
