Lunas invited to Super Bowl for once-in-a-lifetime experience | News, Sports, Jobs

Four Lahainaluna High School football captains will be participating in the Super Bowl LVIII coin toss. Teva Loft (from left), Kuola Watson, Kaulana Tihada and Morgan “Bula” Montgomery wear Luna Strong shirts with Keith Amemiya (far right), president of the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaii, chair of the Governor’s Sports Task Force and organizer of the Luna Strong fundraising campaign. JONATHAN CONRAD photo

LAHAINA — When Teva Loft, Morgan “Bula” Montgomery, Kaulana Tihada and Kuola Watson were called to the principal’s office on Jan. 25 at Lahainaluna High School, the four seniors thought they were all in trouble.

Instead, they found themselves on a Zoom call with the NFL and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Marcus Mariota and were told that they are going to Super Bowl.

The NFL was to make the official announcement today that the four team captains and three coaches from Lahainaluna will serve as the honorary coin toss captains at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Sunday.

“It almost seems unreal, we never pictured it, we didn’t even think about it,” Watson said last week. “We all went into the meeting thinking that we were going to get talked to, we thought we were all in trouble.

“Marcus Mariota came on the phone on a Zoom call and just told us, just dropped a bomb on us pretty much. … He just told us that we’re going to the Super Bowl. I’m really excited, I’ve never even been to an NFL game before.”

Both Tihada and Loft also said they thought they had been called to the principal’s office because they were in trouble.

“I thought the same thing, I thought we were going to get lectured,” Loft said. “It was a good surprise, though, just seeing Marcus Mariota on the Zoom call. I thought it was going to be something good when I saw him.”

The overwhelming theme from all the Lunas who are making the trip is that the publicity generated from them being on the Allegiant Stadium field during the most viewed television event of the year can help with the ongoing recovery efforts from the Aug. 8 wildfire that devastated Lahaina.

“It means a lot, just to show everybody that we’re doing OK,” Watson said. “The Super Bowl is the biggest platform that I can think of. I’m still in shock to this day. I don’t really have any words to say.”

The Watson home is still standing in the Hawaiian Homes neighborhood near the Lahaina Civic Center, while across the street the Tihadas’ family home was destroyed by the fire.

“I am very excited, yeah, we’re so lucky to have this trip,” Tihada said last week, adding that the coin flip “is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s, like, unbelievable.”

Watson has been interviewed by numerous national and international media outlets since the fire delayed the Lunas’ season — he knows that the opportunity to shed more light on the plight and difficulties of rebuilding the town will come on the trip to Las Vegas.

“Whatever I can do personally, whatever we can do to help out Lahaina as representatives of the Lahainaluna football team,” Watson said. “Just helping out however we can, spreading the word, and I don’t know, maybe shedding some light on the town, bringing some pride. I don’t know, it’d be pretty cool if I see one of my friends at the Super Bowl.”

Loft, who is living with his father in Napili after his mother’s house in Lahaina was destroyed by the fire, has never been to Las Vegas nor has he seen an NFL game of any kind.

“It’s going to be crazy, I don’t have the words to describe it,” Loft said.

Montgomery said Saturday at the Maui Interscholastic League wresting meet at the Lahainaluna gym that he also was without the words to describe the feeling.

“I’m just stoked, just speechless,” Montgomery said. “The day that me and all the others found out we got called into the office and we thought we were in trouble. Once we got the news, Marcus Mariota, he was the one that broke it to us, we were like frozen for a second, looking at each other. Just like, we were all just shook. We didn’t believe him at first.”

Keith Amemiya is the President of the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaii and Chair of the Governor’s Sports Task Force and was one of the first to receive word from the NFL and Mariota’s Motiv8 Foundation that the Super Bowl invitation was coming.

“I’m so excited and happy for them. For all that they’ve accomplished under unimaginable circumstances, no one deserves it more than them,” Amemiya said in a text to The Maui News last Tuesday. “Through it all, they’ve made Lahaina extremely proud and have served as an inspiration to the entire state and beyond. They’re the hope and promise that we need on the long road to recovery.”

Mariota, the Saint Louis School graduate who previously played for the Super Bowl host Raiders and is now a backup for the Philadelphia Eagles, will narrate a special introductory video before the Lunas walk onto the field for the coin toss Sunday.

“The Lahainaluna High School football team embodies the power of football to bring people together, even in the most challenging of circumstances,” NFL Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility Anna Isaacson said in the NFL news release obtained by The Maui News. “We are honored to have members of the Lahainaluna football team join us as coin toss captains at Super Bowl LVIII to recognize their incredible efforts in rebuilding their community.”

Tihada has been to Las Vegas — his older brother Josh Tihada played collegiately at UNLV — and has seen an NFL game in person, but he is also excited about the opportunity to continue to spread the word on the situation that remains complicated in Lahaina.

“Oh, yeah, this is an opportunity to get awareness back to Lahaina,” Kaulana Tihada said. “It’s going to put the spotlight back on Lahaina, just bring back more awareness and more coverage to Lahaina and just tell us that we cannot forget about this town, that we’ve still got to rebuild and stuff.”

The Tihada family is still living in temporary hotel space in Kahana.

“It’s a little different from living in my old house, but we’re very lucky to have a place to stay because there’s some people that are camping, so we’re very lucky,” Tihada said.

Tihada can’t wait to share the Super Bowl experience with his friends.

“Oh my gosh, that’s going to be unbelievable, that’s going to be amazing,” Tihada said. “We want to represent Lahaina well.”

Lahainaluna head coach Dean Rickard was told of the invite while he was snowboarding at Lake Tahoe. He confirmed the invite in a phone interview with The Maui News last Tuesday before boarding a plane home.

Lunas coaches Rickard, Bobby Watson and Garret Tihada will also make the trip. NFL Films has already released a 30-minute documentary on the Lunas’ 2023 season and this trip will be part of a longer documentary that is in the works.

“Well, who wouldn’t be excited, right?” Rickard said via phone last week. “It is crazy. I don’t know all the details yet, but all I heard was that we were invited and who wouldn’t want to be invited, right? So a lot of the details haven’t been given to me yet — all I know is that me, coach Garret, coach Watson and Kaulana, Teva, Bula and Kuola are all going to the Super Bowl.

“I know it has something to do with the NFL Films video that was put out. They are continuing to keeping that story going and they wanted to have us as guests to the Super Bowl. When this opportunity arose, I quickly raised my hand and said, ‘Yeah, we’ll go.’ “

Lahainaluna principal Richard Carosso said in the NFL news release: “The school would like to thank the NFL and its partners for this unimaginable opportunity and their continued support for Lahaina. We are very excited for our coaches and players to be a part of the Super Bowl and are proud of how well they represent the values and spirit of their team, the school, and the Lahaina community.”

Through the NFL Foundation, the NFL has provided the Lahainaluna football team and two other local football programs — the Lahaina Intermediate School and Lahaina Chiefs Pop Warner teams — with grants to fund new equipment.

Thanks to additional support from USA Football and Riddell, the NFL is replacing all football equipment, including helmets, shoulder pads, girdles, jerseys and pants for the Lahainaluna and Lahaina Intermediate football teams. In addition, the NFL will provide those items as well as footballs, mouth pieces, cleats, blocking pads and tackling sleds to the Lahaina Chiefs.

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