Inside The Huskies

Huskies Had Hawaiian LB Standout Nearby, Will Now Try to Reel Him In

Liona Lefau from Kahuku High School in the islands has the UW among his eight finalists.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Had Hawaiian LB Standout Nearby, Will Now Try to Reel Him In
Huskies Had Hawaiian LB Standout Nearby, Will Now Try to Reel Him In

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Last spring, coveted Hawaiian linebacker Liona Lefau played his high school football games just nine miles from Husky Stadium. He pulled on a uniform for suburban Sammamish High because COVID-19 postponed and then canceled his season in the islands.

A different set of University of Washington recruiters have their work cut out for them in seeing if they can get Lefau any closer to Montlake, but they still have a chance.

This week, the 6-foot-1, 210-pound prospect from Kahuku High School in Kahuku, Hawaii, narrowed his choices to eight schools — BYU, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, USC, Utah and the Huskies.

Lefau returned home to Hawaii and played his junior season last fall for Kahuku High school, helping the Red Raiders to a 10-0 record and the open state championship. He had a blocked-punt return for a touchdown and an interception in the title game.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser subsequently named him as the Defensive Player of the Year for island high schoolers.

As for that previous sojourn to the Seattle area, Lefau and four fellow Hawaiians transferred to Sammamish a year ago to take part in a four-game spring football season because nothing was offered back home. They felt their recruitment would suffer if they didn't find an alternative place to play.

"We’re just staying positive through this COVID," Lefau said at the time. "Hopefully, we can play this fall. If not, guys will make the move. Hawaii is the one state not playing football. I’m hoping they understand that losing two years is too much. One year, that’s enough.” 

Lefau and the others chose the Bellevue, Washington, high school as a substitute football arrangement because of a Hawaiian connection. The Sammamish football coach, Rylan Akana, is the brother of Kahuku High basketball coach Brandyn Akana.

Football fans in Hawaii tried to watch these relocated five players in their Sammamish games a year ago over live streaming, but the demand was so great they apparently crashed the system.

The UW will see if it can maintain an uninterrupted connection to this heavily pursued linebacker. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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