Football field offers life lessons

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer

In debating Brother Greg O'Donnell's decision to pull the Damien High School football team out of two games against St. Louis School, people have struggled to summarize the issues:

It's a matter of safety.

This is about football.

It's all about pride.

But maybe another way to look at the situation is for the amazing opportunity it offers. Though it is fraught with emotion, it's rich in potential. Here is a chance for these young men to learn some important lessons. Yes, it is about all those things, but on a grander scale, it's about life. What do you do when you face a formidable opponent like St. Louis, not only on the football field, but out in the "real world"? What do you do when someone else makes that decision for you? How do you sort through issues of parity and pride and tradition to figure out what is most important to you?

Kaloa Robinson is one who still carries with him the things football taught him. He played on the last Damien team that defeated St. Louis twice in a season, back in 1982. He went on to get his master's degree at George Washington University and is now at UH-Hilo with the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence, John Burns School of Medicine. Here's some of what he said in a note to me:

"Whenever we prepared to play St. Louis we ran a little faster, we hit a little harder, and our injuries didn't seem as bad... Even the coaching rhetoric during the week of practice seemed to make everyone feel that you not only represented your classmates, you represented the alumni, your family, and everyone else who has made you what you are.

"To be on the field at Aloha Stadium and to see a process — a competition — from beginning to end offers an invaluable life lesson: You don't give up in the face of defeat. You don't give up when everyone in the state of Hawai'i will bet their mortgages against your victory. And especially, you don't give up until the clock runs out of time. ...To forfeit and forgo the Damien vs. St. Louis game denies the students a lifelong experience and memory."

It's understandable that Damien wants to protect the players from injury, but there are other ways to address that concern besides keeping them off the field.

Though the decisions Damien administrators, players and parents will have to make may not be pleasant or easy, they will be rich in meaning. The handful of Damien seniors may never pick up a football again after this season, but they will probably find themselves up against an opponent as daunting as St. Louis in another aspect of life. And in life, you don't get to forfeit the game. That the Damien players want to take on St. Louis shows they've already learned some pretty important things.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Her e-mail address is lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com