Kahuku coach teaches players a tough lesson
BY Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
In the heat of the moment following the Kahuku High School football team's stunning 17-14 loss to Leilehua in Friday's Division I state semifinals, some emotions spilled over.
At least one Kahuku player had to be restrained, and for safety reasons both teams headed straight for the locker room — bypassing the traditional postgame handshakes.
Livai
No matter what triggered the emotional overflow or what was said by whom, in the Kahuku locker room afterward, head coach Siuaki Livai took the opportunity to stress the bottom line to his defending state champion Red Raiders.
"In a game like this, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose, and just like you have to learn how to win, you also have to learn how to lose," Livai said. "I don't want to base everything on one loss. You cannot win all the time. This was just a football game, and I told them they're young, they're going to be losing many more times in real life, at things much bigger than this. So they better learn how to deal with it."
Kahuku had entered Friday's semifinal with a 10-game win streak and had not lost to a Hawai'i opponent since Oct. 31, 2002 — a 24-game string.
"Of course it hurts, especially when we were favored to win," said Livai, who was fighting a cold all day Friday to the point where he did not know if he would make it to the game. "But the credit goes to Leilehua, and this was a good lesson to learn: You have to know how to lose, how to take defeat."
Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.
