Thankful every day: How high school football played a key role in Lahaina's recovery from the Maui wildfires

Editor’s note: Newsday high school sports editor Gregg Sarra traveled to Hawaii with his wife, Katherine, this fall to celebrate a milestone birthday for her. The couple visited the historic town of Lahaina, which was devastated by the Maui wildfires in August 2023.

While there, they attended a Lahainaluna High School football game, where they learned more about the breadth and scope of the destruction and the football team’s role in helping inspire the town’s efforts to recover.

The residents of Lahaina found comfort in football and family, driven by the community’s steadfast commitment to “Imua,” the Hawaiian word for “to move forward.”

This is their story.

LAHAINA, Hawaii

David Kauvaka watched from afar. He looked toward the black clouds rising from the Maui wildfires and choked on his thoughts.

“I wondered if all my friends were alive or had they died,” he said. “I lived in Napili, a few towns over, and the skies over Lahaina were black with smoke. I couldn’t stop crying. The wildfires were totally out of control, and the whole town was on fire.”

Kauvaka, now a junior offensive tackle for the Lahainaluna High School football team, was a 14-year-old freshman at the time.

It was Aug. 8, 2023. The fifth-deadliest wildfire in United States history had devastated the historic resort town of Lahaina, on the northwest coast of Maui’s western peninsula.

Lahaina was gone. The harbor, with its shops and restaurants along the well-known Front Street corridor, was destroyed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that at least 2,207 buildings were destroyed and the fire burned 2,170 acres of land. The U.S. Department of Commerce valued the official damage of the wildfires at $5.5 billion.

The people of Lahaina lost everything. Their loved ones. Their homes. Their businesses. Their cherished memories.

“The wildfires grew quickly in size and intensity,” said Dean Rickard, the Lahainaluna High School varsity football coach. “The wind gusts came hard through the valley in the mountains and came out stronger on the leeward side of the island. Wind gusts pushed flames through the Lahaina community, and we had no chance.”

According to Rickard, the fast-moving fires were propelled by intense winds over a dry landscape.

“The landowners used to grow sugar cane and maintain those fields,” Rickard said. “They kept them irrigated to grow the cane. With no more sugar cane industry, the fields dried out and were easily flammable.”

Rickard, 61, a 1982 alum of the school, served 34 years in law enforcement and accepted the head-coaching position in 2015. After playing college football at Eastern Oregon, he started coaching as an assistant at Lahaina in 1987.

“I lost four family members, including my mother-in-law, two cousins, an aunt and some close friends,” he said. “My home suffered extensive damage and the house where I grew up was destroyed. Flames battered the town and burned hundreds of homes in minutes as the fire moved southwest towards the Pacific Coast. People who evacuated were stuck in traffic and trapped in their vehicles. They were jumping out and running to the ocean sea wall to escape the heat. It was total chaos.”

There were 102 confirmed deaths. The 80-mph winds knocked down utility poles and cell towers, resulting in massive service outages that rendered 911 calls unavailable.

“Most everyone lost everything,” Kauvaka said. “The communication systems were down, and no one knew where anyone was living. I didn’t know for weeks who made it out alive and who didn’t. It was terrifying. No electricity, no hot water, nothing. We were living by generator on bottled water and canned foods.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing until it’s gone,” Rickard said. “Life can change in an instant. Be thankful for all you have. It’s not about a place — it’s about people.”

Locating people

The most frustrating thing was trying to locate friends and family.

Rickard said the football team had begun practicing for the season. The Lahainaluna Lunas had won four Hawaii state titles between 2016-19 before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the winning streak.

“We were preparing for our first preseason game that Saturday,” Rickard said. “We didn’t know where our players were. They were all displaced and living elsewhere. Some lost more than the house — they lost family members.”

People returned to Lahaina to live in tents, yurts or even storage containers. Some were fortunate to find temporary housing. Some moved to other locations on the island.

“For the first month after the fire, we stayed with my brother on the other side of the island,” Rickard said. “There were 30 of us. I was sleeping on an inflatable in an open lanai. There were many sleeping on the beaches in Kaanapali.”

They needed clothing, footwear and bathroom supplies. The challenge was daunting. The football season was in jeopardy, but that was the least of Lahaina’s problems.

“Football brought us back together at school,” Lahainaluna senior halfback Joe Kalani Arcangel said. “We needed something to give us hope.”

High school football eventually would serve as one of the catalysts for bringing people back together. And then, by chance, Rickard ran into two of his players at a local Walmart store that went undamaged on the north side of town.

“I saw two of our players and I thought football would be the last thing on their minds,” Rickard said. “I was just so happy to see them healthy.”

To Rickard’s surprise, the players wanted to try to locate team members and save the season.

“I thought, why not?” he said. “Let’s find everyone. I prayed none of them had died in the fire. Maybe football would be a little distraction from the tragedy. Maybe we could get back to playing our season as the school was not in the fire zone. I wanted that for our seniors.”

Over the course of a few days, more players showed up to lift weights and practice. It gave Rickard hope that there could be a season. The Maui Interscholastic League modified the team schedule to make it possible.

“We were not allowed to practice for two weeks and that helped us pull everyone together,” Rickard said. “We had 51 players on the roster and 28 of them lost their homes and all their belongings. Our core values include teaching our kids about character and overcoming adversity. We needed them to focus on something other than the tragedy.”

Lahainaluna went undefeated in a shortened five-game regular season and won the league championship to qualify for the state tournament. The Lunas lost in a state quarterfinal playoff game on a field goal with 16 seconds remaining.

“Our community was so supportive, and it gave them something to hold on to,” Rickard said. “Football galvanizes a community and brings everyone together. We needed that to help with the healing. Everyone was hurting. And when one of us hurts, we all hurt. Some had farms and had to evacuate and leave the animals behind, and all the farm animals — the cows and pigs — all died.”

Jonathan Conrad, the director of athletics at Lahainaluna and a teacher at the school for 23 years, said it was the right move to allow the football team to compete.

“We tried to give the players and coaches some sort of normalcy after the wildfires,” Conrad said. “It was an attractive way to distract them from the reality of the fires and what was going on all around them. It was a brilliant escape. Luckily, the school was not in the fire’s path and left undamaged — but everything below it was destroyed.”

Lahainaluna High School sits on a hill above the town and serves as a beacon to the community. It opened in 1831 as a seminary school.

“That’s what Lahaina means: above,” Rickard said. “Above, overlooking the town.”

Help was on the way

Rickard said the outpouring of support from all over the world will never leave him. The humanity of it all justified his core values and beliefs that there is good in people everywhere.

“I am so thankful to our neighboring islands in Molokai and Lanai, the two closest inhabited islands, for all of their support,” he said. “They were coming over on boats, bringing tons of supplies for the locals. Bringing goods and food that were desperately needed, even before the not for profits and the government acted. And the unity in the community has been great.”

Freelance photographer Glen Pascual, who is an attorney from Wailuku, has captured Lahainaluna sporting events for 16 years. He also is a school alum.

“We are Lahaina strong,” Pascual said. “Our high school is a source of immense pride. It’s the oldest high school west of the Rockies. The school is the heart of Lahaina and holds a lot of history and symbolism.”

Pascual’s mother, Natividad Pascual, 92, was a survivor.

“Her tenant urged her out of her apartment and placed her at the base of the ocean seawall,” he said. “My mom was pounded by waves for five terrifying hours at night on the shoreline. She was rescued and evacuated to central Maui in Wailuku.”

Rebuilding Lahaina

Two years removed from the Maui wildfires, Lahaina is making a comeback, but it has not fully recovered from the fires.

The rebuild has taken longer than expected. The government funding came in more slowly than expected. There is construction everywhere. But all agree there is reason to be thankful.

Significant progress has been made, especially in residential rebuilding. But thousands of residents still face housing issues.

“It’s been slow, but we’re thankful we’re alive,” Rickard said. “We still have displacement issues with people living out of town. But lives cannot be replaced.”

Tourism has seen an uptick and local business has started to thrive again. The commercial area on Front Street still is in the planning stages for infrastructure repair. The cleanup has been laborious. There are reminders of the significant loss of life and property everywhere.

Thankful

The football team finished with a 4-4 record in 2025 and did not qualify for the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. Housing issues continue to plague the roster, as players were forced to move to other high schools on Maui.

“It was a successful season in so many ways,” Rickard said. “We only had 13 seniors, we’re young. We can reflect on our lives and what we’re thankful for — basically being alive and having opportunity.

“The fires really made you think about your life, family, friends and neighbors. Family comes first, and then education and sports. And I really feel the football team coming together so quickly gave people some hope.”

Kauvaka would agree. He’s turned himself into a 6-4, 275-pound behemoth and one of the Island’s top NCAA Division I recruits.

“We’re getting back to it in Lahaina,” he said. “I’m feeling better. Some of my family moved to the mainland in California. They’re all good. And I’m following my path toward college football. I am blessed.”

Kauvaka said he’s still emotional when the football team sings the school’s alma mater before each game. It is a Hawaiian tradition.

“There is so much pride singing together on the field,” he said. “It’s very emotional, even more so after the fires. It brings us closer like family. And it always gives the community a spark — a light in the darkness.”

Conrad said the singing of the school song hits a little differently these days.

“It represents all that is good and how we’re moving forward together,” he said.

Football — Hawaiian style

It’s game time. King Kekaulike is hosting Lahainaluna in a Maui Interscholastic League game.

Both high schools opened by singing their alma maters before the game. The King Kekaulike band played the national anthem. The cheerleaders for both teams were excited. The capacity crowd roared. The temperature was a perfect 77 degrees. There were pretzels and hot dogs, too.

The realization was clear: High school football, whether on Long Island or a Hawaiian island, has the same effect on the community. Its impact cannot be understated. The teams and players may change, but in the end, it’s a sport that brings the community together in good times and bad.

Lahainaluna won, 42-21, and the cheerleaders performed the Imua cheer after every touchdown.

“Imua is also our version of our fight song,” Lahainaluna High School cheerleading coach Kellie Perez said. “When the band plays the song, the cheer team starts with a hula dance that turns into a combination of a fight song and dance. It’s a deep-running tradition, passed down for generations.”

“Moving forward.” Lahaina is living proof of that.

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.