The Lahainaluna High School football team lived the 2023 season under a media microscope that stretched from the Valley Isle to Washington, D.C.

The Aug. 8 wildfires that devastated the Lunas’ town threw their season into serious doubt before their Maui Interscholastic League football brethren all dove in to save it.

Maui High agreed to play nine straight weeks, Baldwin played eight straight, Kamehameha Maui and King Kekaulike agreed to each play seven games with only two of them counting towards state tournament qualification.

The Lunas had to deal with practicing and attending school in Kihei for a month until their campus opened, but they made it to the field, sold out all six of their games, ran the table in five MIL contests — running their MIL football record win streak to 44, dating to 2016 — before coming up short in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I state tournament in a 29-28, last-second loss to Kapaa on Nov. 18.

NFL Films and The Washington Post, among several other national outlets, followed the Lunas’ journey all season for upcoming documentaries.

For the players, the fact that they were able to get on the field at all was a big win.

“I’m just happy we had a season, just happy to play my last high school career game with all my boys that I grew up with and, yeah, we came up short, but I’m happy to end it on the note that we didn’t give up until the very end,” senior safety/running back Kuola Watson said on Tuesday. “And I thank all my boys for that.”

Watson’s father Kenui Watson, a former standout at the school himself and a veteran assistant coach, told the team he is hanging up his coaching whistle for now — at least until his younger children get closer to joining the team. Kuola’s grandfather, Bobby Watson, who has coached the team in some form or another since 1978, is also considering stepping back from the coaching ranks.

Kuola Watson wants to follow in the family coaching tree at his soon-to-be alma mater.

“Oh, extremely proud, not just the last name, but to have my papa and my dad and my whole family, my grandma guys, having them and having them mentor me up, it means a lot to me,” Kuola Watson said. “I never want to do anything to put down the name. I just want to make them proud.

“I want to make my own legacy as a Watson and hope I can carry it on with some of the boys, maybe Kaulana (Tihada). I just look at them and I want to get to that point where I’m just mentoring kids, making them into adults. Kind of like coach them up, not just to play football, but to become better men.”

Kuola Watson has clearly learned the life lessons handed out by the program well.

“It’s not just football,” he said. “Lahainaluna is way more than just football.”

Tihada, a senior running back/linebacker, has been Watson’s running mate since they were toddlers following their fathers to practice. Tihada’s father, Joey, is a longtime assistant coach, and his older brothers Justice and Joshua were both standout players for the Lunas.

“I mean, it was a journey,” Kaulana Tihada said. “Even before the fire and after the offseason and then after the fire, what we did as a team — going to Kihei, going to the Kihei schools, and having to live on the other side, it was different. It was a journey, man, just sticking with the teammates that you got, it was amazing.”

Tihada and Watson grew up across the street from each other in the Hawaiian Homes neighborhood near the Lahaina Civic Center.

Tihada’s house burned to the ground in the fire, while Watson’s house is still standing.

Watson said it was imperative that the team play to offer some relief to the fire survivors, their devastated community and the 192-year-old school itself. Nine of the 18 assistant coaches and approximately half of the players on the team lost their homes in the fire.

“It was super important to all of us, I mean the season gave us something to focus on, something to put our energy and our attitude towards after the fire,” Tihada said. “We didn’t even know if we were going to have a season, we didn’t even know if we were going to have school for Lahainaluna, so that was definitely a blessing.”

With the University of Hawaii offering four years of free tuition to all Lahainaluna seniors, Tihada is one of several Lunas considering a walk-on attempt to the Rainbow Warriors football team. He is currently paddling for the Lahainaluna team coached by his father.

“If UH accepts me then I’m probably going to go to UH,” Tihada said. “I might try to walk on, I was just trying to get in touch with the UH coaches.”

The team will be together one more time in the stands at Clarence T.C. Ching Complex this weekend in Manoa when UH finishes its season against Colorado State. The trip is being put together by the Luna Strong campaign that was founded by Keith Amemiya, the senior vice president at Central Pacific Bank and president of the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaii.

Hawaiian Airlines is providing the airfare for the traveling party of 70, Outrigger Hotels is providing the lodging Saturday night, and Roberts Hawaii is handling the ground transportation.

Outrigger is covering their dinner on Saturday before the game, Rainbow Drive-In is providing plate lunches for everyone postgame and Zippy’s is providing breakfast bentos on Sunday morning.

Some of the players have never flown on an airplane and several have never been to a UH football game. Waikiki Beach and Ala Moana Center will also be part of the itinerary.

“We’re pleased at the opportunity to bring the Luna football team to Oahu to experience a University of Hawaii football game,” Amemiya said. “And we’re grateful to the many sponsors who helped make this happen as part of the Luna Strong campaign.”

Co-head coach Dean Rickard said he was overwhelmingly thankful for the season taking place as he looks back this Thanksgiving week.

“We were grateful that we got the opportunity, that’s all we were looking for,” he said. “The goal was always getting back to the state tournament. Of course, competing in the MIL and getting back to a state tournament, that was always the goal from way back in January when we left off last year.”

Rickard remembers practice on Aug. 7 as they prepared to host Hilo in a preseason game, a game that never happened after the events of the next day.

“After that everything just changed,” Rickard said. “We all know what happened, the fire and everything. From that point on everything became uncertain, whether Lahainaluna would even be back on the field, not just football, but all fall sports. We understood the possibility of not having Lahainaluna football for the first time in forever.”

It was a chance meeting with senior players Noa Gordon and Ikaika Gonzales at Wal-Mart a couple days after the fire that made Rickard start to think about a football season and how much bringing back the “Red Tide from the West Side” would mean to the community.

“Two of the kids said they were still thinking about the season, what was going to happen, they wanted to play and that’s when everything started,” Rickard said. “We just thank the MIL executives, we just thank the school administrations for making it happen and including us in the season, so when you look back at it just having that opportunity.

“… These are Luna players, we’re talking about kids who grew up dreaming of playing Lahainaluna football and wearing the red and white. Possibly wearing other school colors, that was just something — we talked to the kids now that the season is over and we look back upon it — they could never, ever see themselves playing for someone else. … Fast forward, everything worked its way out.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.