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Football With Aloha

Even with setbacks, Kaho‘o­hanohano-Davis continues to shine on and off the field

By Robert Collias 7 min read

Just when La'akea Kaho'o­hanohano-Davis had established himself on the college football landscape, another in a long list of setbacks hit him recently.

After battling injuries that cost him four of five seasons from 2014-18, the Southern Utah University linebacker was named a Football Championship Subdivision All-American in the 2021 spring season that was delayed by COVID-19.

"It's definitely been a long journey, not an easy one for sure, but it's been fun," said Kaho'ohanohano-Davis, a 2016 graduate of Baldwin High School. "I met a lot of cool people along the way, lifetime friends I would say. If you had asked me in 2016, I would not think I would be here right now, honestly.

"It feels great though to just be where I'm at. I don't know, it's just awesome, man. I can't explain it."

He suffered torn anterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee -- the first in the second game of the 2016 season and then again on the first day of fall camp in 2017. He tore his meniscus in 2019, but rebounded quickly to play in five games, recording 10 tackles.

Kaho'ohanohano-Davis' first big injury came when he broke his elbow as a junior at Baldwin in the opener and missed the remainder of the season.

It was last spring where he finally was able to show the athleticism that allowed him to score 12 touchdowns and win four state titles in track as a Baldwin senior, including state-record and nationally ranked marks in the long jump and triple jump.

In the six-game 2021 spring season for the Thunderbirds, he recorded 57 tackles and seven sacks to earn first-team FCS All-American honors.

"He's a freakish athlete. We always know that La'a was really good, but the problem was he just battled injuries when he first came to us," SUU linebackers coach Solomona Tapasa said. "He's had two knee surgeries since he's been here, so that's why you guys didn't see him a whole lot.

"Last year, he finally got healthy and everybody saw what he could do. The NFL has already come through and talked to us about him. They can see the athleticism and everything else. So, yeah, the NFL has already started coming through. He's on the NFL's radar right now."

Kaho'ohanohano-Davis was joined on the Thunderbirds roster this fall by Devon Sa-Chisolm, a wide receiver who won three Division II state titles with Lahainaluna before transfering and winning a 5A state crown with Orem High School in Utah in 2020.

"I love college football, it's real fun, it's really time-consuming, but it's what I love to do," Sa-Chisolm said. "I'm loving it up here."

Kaho'ohanohano-Davis has been around Cedar City, Utah, long enough to show Sa-Chisolm the ropes.

"I see him every day, so I talked to him here and there and I'm just getting closer with him, just like all of my teammates ... I see him quite a bit," Sa-Chisolm said. "It's really cool because I remember when I was in the eighth grade -- when La'a was in school -- watching all those people play and for him to be a rival to my old school was pretty nice. Just watching what us Hawaii people can be, what we're capable of, it's amazing."

SUU wide receivers coach Brady Measom likes what he sees in Sa-Chisolm early on.

"He's been awesome," Measom said. "One thing I like is he's just soft-spoken and really respectful and just ready to go to work. I've been super impressed with his mentality of how he came in as a true freshman."

Measom was a senior wide receiver on the SUU team when Kaho'ohanohano-Davis arrived in the fall of 2016.

"That was kind of cool, kind of getting to see from both ways," Measom said of Kaho'ohanohano-Davis. "Man, he's obviously got all the athletic abilities, but just as far as his football knowledge and kind of having a feel for the game, being able to play multiple positions, just flying around the field -- I'm glad he's on our team and we don't have to play against him."

Then, while Kaho'ohano­hano-Davis was at the Big Sky Conference media day in Spokane, Wash., on July 24, he was presented with another serious challenge.

He got a call from his girlfriend, SUU women's basketball player Pyper Thornberry. Their apartment was flooded after a deluge of rain in Cedar City.

"I was supposed to come home that day and she just called me and said our apartment was under water," Kaho'ohanohano-Davis said. "I was just thinking, 'OK, maybe it's just like knee-deep or something,' but no. She sent me a (picture) and it was to the ceiling, like 8-feet deep. It was crazy.

"I lost everything I had that was in my house."

The latest setback doesn't appear to be as daunting as the injuries Kaho'ohanohano-Davis has overcome to get to the point where he is considering leaving SUU for the NFL draft with a season of eligibility left.

"It was really bad here in Cedar, the weather was crazy," he said. "That happened, the apartment filling up, that happened in like an hour."

The Cedar City airport was shut down from the weather, delaying Kaho'ohanohano-Davis' arrival home, but when he got there the love abounded.

"We had to deal with everything the next day, but my teammates, the community, everybody here is just incredible," he said. "When I wasn't here, all my teammates, everybody, they all helped my girlfriend and stuff, grab everything out. Even my neighbors, too, they really came together and helped."

Last week, the Thunderbirds team gathered to help a community outside of Cedar City where SUU defensive line coach Ryan Hunt lives. More rain had compounded the problems the area was still dealing with as a result of the flooding a couple weeks earlier.

"He needed help because his house got flooded, so we went with sandbags and when we were going out to see if anybody in the community needed help," Kaho'ohanohano-Davis said. "Everybody was just getting in their trucks and going and helping the whole day, from 8 to like 6 in the afternoon.

"The thunder and the storms have been crazy over here. People in Cedar have said they've never seen anything like this."

Said Tapasa: "He was out there with his teammates helping everybody else in the community before he even helped himself. And then the news (reporters) wanted to come talk to him, the lieutenant governor tried to come talk to him, but he said, 'Nah, I'm with my teammates.' That's how humble he is, it's always about his teammates with him. Humble kid."

Kaho'ohanohano-Davis said he learned the spirit of giving back from where he grew up.

"This is what we do you know, from living in Hawaii, the aloha spirit, we give aloha," Kaho'ohanohano-Davis said. "I love helping people. Although, I lost all my material things, but as long as everybody's OK, no lives lost, everyone is good, I'm fine. I just love spreading aloha."

Among the irreplaceable items he lost in the flood was his great grandmother's prayer book and all of his clothes. A GoFundMe account raised more than $4,000 for Kaho'ohanohano-Davis.

"Everybody was showing all of their support, just helping out so much, I just thank them from the bottom of my heart," Kaho'ohanohano-Davis said. "I can't thank everybody enough, everybody back home and everyone here."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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