Kahuku Field Dedication

After a lost a year due the pandemic, plus another season of full road travel and about $12 million in state funds, the website Spectrum News says the football-crazed North Shore community has officially blessed and opened the new Kahuku turf field.

Gudrun Beibee, a Laie community member, said the field was worth the wait for the community. She explained students’ future will be decided on this field. “On this field, we have many students who have the opportunity to go to college. So, if you ask me why we’re here? It’s because we belong here.”

The new artificial field looked “every bit what was promised for years,” says Spectrum News because the beloved venue of one of the state’s most iconic programs was “plagued by persistent muddy conditions and drainage issues.”

Sterling Carvalho, the coach of the defending 2021 Hawaii state champions, said in an interview on the news website, what a blessing it was to finally play football again on Kahuku’s home field. The team used to take an hour-plus bus ride every week to play in town, but now they can finally relax in familiar confines for pregame meals.

“The field, it’s a blessing,” Carvalho said. “We have lines. We have hashes, numbers - not just to play on, but to practice on.”

Terry Moeai, senior manager at BYU–Hawaii’s Student Leadership & Service, said he is an alumni of Kahuku High School and a part of the Class of 1988. One of Kahuku’s traditions is having generations of families play on its field, he said. His father and his brother, he added, played on this field and so will his son, an upcoming high school senior.

“I feel this is a representation of a place or a space where students can fulfill their athletic goals they want to achieve. The field is also used as a classroom for physical education. So this marriage of athletics and academics, I think, is the beauty of this new field.”

The field was blessed during the summer on July 9, accompanied by a performance by the Halau Hula O Kekela. •

Dr. Donna Lindsey, principal (right) and Lea Albert, former principal (left) pictured above, cut the ribbon to the new turf field.

An aerial photo of the new Kahuku High and Intermediate school turf field. Photos by Marwin Jay Villegas. FALL 2022 VOL.1 41Graphics by Sugarmaa Bataa (Kendra).