Amemiya Leads Fundraising Efforts for High School Sports in Maui

On August 7, 2023, life in the town of Lahaina on the western side of Maui in Hawaii was much the same as any other day, with many of the 12,000-plus residents working at the numerous stores, restaurants and historic sites on Front Street.

By the end of day on August 8, more than 80 percent of Lahaina was destroyed by a wildfire fueled by dry conditions and high winds made worse by Hurricane Dora. About 100 people lost their lives in the tragedy, and most of the survivors lost their homes and were left with only the clothes on their backs.

Much of the next several weeks was devoted to locating survivors – and for those who did survive trying to determine where they were going to live. By the end of August, however, and with the start of a new school year, a glimmer of hope began to appear at Lahainaluna High School. Founded in 1831, Lahainaluna is the oldest school west of the Rockies and, amazingly, was not structurally damaged in the devastating fire.

For decades in towns and cities throughout our nation, high school football on Friday nights has helped to bring communities together; and in the case of the students at Lahainaluna High School, the opportunity to participate in school sports began to bring a ray of hope to an overwise dismal outlook on life.

The school has a rich football history, so interest in the sport certainly was not an issue. The Lunas won four consecutive Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) Division II state titles from 2016 to 2019, and they made it to the Division I state championship game in 2021. However, more than 450 Lahainaluna student-athletes and 40 coaches lost everything in the fires, so equipment, uniforms and the resolve to re-direct attention away from the tragedy were among the myriad of challenges.

Enter Keith Amemiya, the former HHSAA executive director (1998-2010) who also served a term on the NFHS Board of Directors in the early 2000s. Now the vice president of Central Pacific Bank and chair of Hawaii Governor Josh Green’s Task Force on Sports, Amemiya is also the president of the Downtown Athletic Club of Honolulu (DACH). About one month after the deadly fires, DACH announced the formation of the Luna Strong fundraising campaign.

Luna Strong was formed to raise funds to replace the sports equipment/supplies lost by the Lahainaluna student-athletes whose homes were destroyed in the fires, such as football cleats, basketball shoes, tennis racquets, golf clubs and baseball/softball bats. Funds also were needed for the school’s coaches who lost everything in the fires, as well as the cost for Lahainaluna teams to travel to state tournaments.

Amazingly, in about six weeks since the campaign was announced, more than $400,000 has been raised along with numerous in-kind contributions. Former Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota outfitted all varsity and junior varsity football players with cleats. Former Major League Baseball player Shane Victorino, who played on two World Series championship teams, provided cleats and other equipment for all Lahainaluna baseball and softball players. Former PGA player and current Golf Channel announcer Mark Rolfing provided equipment for the school’s girls and boys golf teams.

“Many of the student-athletes and coaches lost their homes,” Amemiya said. “I’ve been to many of the coaches’ homes in the past as the football coaching staff has been together for decades. There are now sons of coaches who have taken over the program. So, it is very deep and personal to me because I’ve been to Lahaina many times. I’ve been to homes in the town that got wiped out, and it’s really sad.

“During my time at the HHSAA I met a lot of people, both locally and nationally. I became very good friends with the coaches at Lahainaluna. They helped me a lot early in my career, so I wanted to give back to them after this tragedy. I enlisted the downtown business community, and we started the Luna Strong campaign. We have all come together to support our fellow Lunas, which means ‘leader’ in Hawaiian.”

In an article in the Maui News, Garret Tihada, longtime football coach at Lahainaluna High School, said the donation from Mariota and the work of Amemiya will never be forgotten, nor will any of the other philanthropic efforts.

“I think it’s overwhelming for all of us as coaches and the players just to see the generosity that people have toward this Lahaina community in general,” Tihada told the Maui News. “For somebody like Keith (Amemiya) who has no ties to Lahaina whatsoever, and like I told you before, he called me like a day or two after the fire saying, ‘We need to get Lahainaluna football going and the community needs it.’ Like I told the kids, I can’t explain why he has the passion that he does to get this going for them, but we’re just so grateful somebody like him is spearheading all of this because he’s making it happen, getting things done.”

Thanks to the efforts of many, many people, Lahainaluna had its first practice on September 7 – not at the school but on a field in Kihei, a town about 25 miles from Lahaina, where students attended school for the first several weeks while the area around Lahainaluna High School was cleaned up for the students’ return to classes.

And then came the day of celebration – September 30 – when the Lunas were able to play their first game of the season at another site on Maui – War Memorial Stadium. A sellout crowd of more than 5,000 fans turned out to see Lahainaluna defeat Baldwin High School, 42-0, in a game covered by several national outlets and almost all of the state’s media.

“Some of the football coaches (at Lahainaluna) have told me that because of the collective efforts of all of us in the Luna Strong campaign, it motivated them to have a season because when the fires happened, football was the last thing on their minds, which is understandable,” Amemiya said. “After they thought about it, they realized the importance of football to the young men and to the community. And they are happy they did it, so that makes me feel good that we gave them the impetus and motivation despite many reasons they had for skipping the season.”

The victory over Baldwin was the Lunas 40th consecutive Maui Interscholastic League victory – a streak that started in 2016. Following the opening win, Kaulana Tihada, a senior running back for the Lunas and son of assistant coach, Joey Tihada, had the following to say in a Maui News article:

“I’ve never seen this place, this War Memorial packed out liked that, sold out. It means a lot. Football really keeps us driving, ever since the offseason, just being together with our team, in the weight room, on the practice field, even just team meetings with each other; we’ve just been really building our family and our ohana. So, we’re really focusing on ourselves and playing for this community.”

Lahainaluna won its next two games as well, and then came the REALLY big game – the first home game at Sue Cooley Stadium since the historic fire. The October 21 homecoming game was played before another sellout crowd of 3,000 and produced another victory for the Lunas, 28-7, in a rematch against Baldwin.

It was an emotional night for everyone in the stadium, which sits on a hillside in Lahaina and overlooks the ruins of the historic city. In an AP News article by Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Heather Filikitonga, a 2001 graduate of Lahainaluna and mother of a player on this year’s team who could see the gutted remains of her apartment building from the stands, is trying to see hope through the darkness.

“If they can get on the field and find some normalcy in their life,” she said of the players, “then I can do the same.”

While the football team has received much of the attention, the Luna Strong effort is seeking to help all student-athletes affected by the disaster. “We’re helping baseball and softball, and golf, and we’re helping girls volleyball,” Amemiya said. “I’m going to visit with Carissa Moore, an Olympic gold medalist in surfing from Hawaii. We are going to talk about providing surfboards for all Lahainaluna boys and girls who lost surfboards in the fire. We are trying to help them (student-athletes) in any way possible to just keep them motivated, keep them going.”

Fundraising continues through the Luna Strong campaign, and while Amemiya knows that life will never be the same for families affected by the historic Maui fires, he intends to continue to try to make it just a little better.

“The reason I’m passionate about this is playing sports is important to kids, especially in a crisis like this as you can imagine,” Amemiya said. “They went one day from living a normal life to losing everything and being displaced. They had no school, they had no sports, they were just sitting around. We want them to be productive. We want them to have hope. We want them to have something meaningful to shoot for, and so that’s why I stepped up from a sports standpoint.

“The Lahainaluna football team is doing well. And a lot of the young men will tell you that’s the motivation to keep them going, to want to go to school, to want to do well in class and strive to go to college. So, I feel good to be a part of this effort.”