Monday Morning Maui Sports: Kamehameha Maui graduate Michael Kalalau leaves impressive legacy for Navy rugby team

Michael Kalalau, a 2020 graduate of Kamehameha Schools Maui, never played rugby until his sophomore year at the U.S. Naval Academy. When he graduated May 23, he left Annapolis, Md., as a 2025 College Rugby Association of America All-American and 2023 association national champion.

His All-American selection came four days before he graduated from the academy.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Kalalau said Sunday. “I was just really surprised and I was excited and happy. My family, once they found out, they were really happy. So, I was excited for that. And a couple of my other teammates got All-American as well, so we were all really happy, but it was mostly a huge surprise to me.”

Kalalau attended the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I., for a year before starting at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he majored in robotics and control engineering, and also studied Japanese.

He starts basic school for the U.S. Marine Corps today in Quantico, Va., and will be there until December — he will find out his Marine Corps job in November. He is hoping to get an infantry job when he finishes basic school as a second lieutenant.

“Super excited, ready to get started with everything,” Kalalau said.

While Kalalau went from walk-on who had never played the game to All-American in his three-year career at the loose head prop position, he credited several others for his remarkable success. His days in Annapolis would start before dawn and end after dusk with the heavy academic load and the addition of a varsity sport that he had to learn from scratch.

“You have long hours throughout the day and then you’ve got to practice after school and then I wouldn’t get back into my room most of the time until about 7:30, 8 o’clock and then that’s when you start homework,” Kalalau said. “So, and then playing rugby for the first time, learning the game. It took me a little bit, it took me a while to understand the game and then just learn my place and my role on the team.”

Navy finished 15-2 this season, ending in the national quarterfinals with a 10-3 loss to Lindenwood University. As a junior, his Navy team was 17-2 and lost 26-22 to St. Mary’s in the national championship match. Kalalau owns a national championship ring from his first season in 2023 when Navy was 18-0 and won the national championship match 28-22 over California.

“I think it just comes down to the coaching and training style that we were put through,” he said. “I leave it all up to that and to the organization and how they brought us up. The results, they speak for themselves. But just very surprised and excited and happy for all that success at the end of my time playing at Navy.”

While he may have surprised himself, Kalalau didn’t surprise his coaches at Kamehameha Maui.

“Michael knows how to think and knows how to work, but most of all, he loves a challenge,” Kamehameha Maui strength and conditioning coach Kevin O’Brien said. “It doesn’t surprise me one bit that he found such great success in something he’d never done before.

“Michael was ultimately a team player. He would do anything asked of him. Coaches love athletes like him.”

Brian Harris, the Kamehameha Maui offensive line coach, remembers Kalalau very well — Kalalau started on both the offensive and defensive lines as a 6-foot, 230-pound standout. He played at 225 pounds for Navy rugby.

“Mikey, for us, he was basically the kind of guy that didn’t come off the field,” Harris said. “We used to call him the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ because of our mascot name and he was just that kind of guy. He just would go and go and didn’t have any quit, wouldn’t stop — just did everything that was asked of him and more.”

While in Annapolis, Kalalau kept up with Kamehameha Maui football as the Warriors climbed into a state power at the Division II level. The Warriors made it to state championship games in 2021 and 2023 before breaking through for their first state title in 2024 with a no-doubt-about-it 37-14 win over Kaiser.

Michael Kalalau, who played football, basketball and ran track for the Warriors, was getting text reports from his mother Pua Kalalau, who was watching the state title game on television on Nov. 30.

“I was away doing something, but I was happy to see it,” Michael Kalalau said. “I came back this past December and congratulated coach (Kamehameha Maui head coach) Ulima (Afoa).  It’s a long time coming for them.”

Kalalau spent last week on Maui, much of it in Hana which he lists as his hometown on his Navy rugby biography — he was born there and lived there until he was 3 years old. Most of his family still lives in Hana. 

His father Mike Kalalau, currently a Maui County fireman, was in the Marine Corps, and the family moved to San Diego when Michael was 3 and it was nine years until they moved back to Maui. Michael Kalalau will never forget his home island, but said it is important for youngsters here to see that there is a big world out there.

“If you have an opportunity, just get off the rock and go explore the world,” Kalalau said. “There’s more out there than what it is here in Hawai‘i and then always appreciate what you have here on Maui. Always appreciate you have a home here and that this place is beautiful. Just keep laying that foundation and take every step one moment at a time.”

“Monday Morning Maui Sports” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.