High school football brings Lahaina and Paradise together in “Unity Bowl”

The football teams from Hawai‘i’s Lahainaluna High School and California’s Paradise High School came together for a historic matchup Saturday evening in West Maui, bringing two communities that were both devastated by wildfires together on the field to celebrate hope, resilience and the strength of community.

On Nov. 8, 2018, the Camp Fire in Paradise displaced more than 50,000 people and destroyed over 18,000 structures and killed 85 people, marking it as the deadliest wildfire in US history at the time. Five years later, on Aug. 8, 2023, a wildfire rapidly spread through Lahaina, destroying over 2,200 structures and killing 102 people—making it the deadliest wildfire in US history.

The game, dubbed the “Unity Bowl,” was born from a vision shared over a year ago between Paradise High School’s athletic director Jerry Cleek, longtime Punahou School athletic director Doug Bennett and Lahainaluna’s athletic director Jonathan Conrad to use high school football as a bridge for mutual healing.

“We realized that football and sports and community heals, and so that’s really what this football game is about—is bringing these students and athletes together, and learning from each other, and sharing hope, and sharing stories, and making friends for life,” Christy Voigt, co-principal of Paradise High School, said.

Before a crowd of about 1,900 at Lahainaluna’s Sue D. Cooley Stadium, the Lunas picked up their first win of the season Friday, beating the Paradise Bobcats 27-21.

Among those in attendance were US Sen. Mazie Hirono, US Congresswoman Jill Tokuda, and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen. In a video Hirono recorded with US Sen. Alex Padilla of California, which was played before the game, the two spoke on the importance of learning from each other through these tragedies.

“It’s been a really interesting week. It’s brought up a lot of emotions from three years ago,” Lahainaluna Principal Richard Carosso said. “Meeting their administrators, meeting their coaches, our kids meeting their kids, I think it really helped us to heal and showed us that it’s going to be OK and communities can get better and can be resilient. And I think it did a lot for us as a school and for us as a community. And through football—one of Lahainaluna’s favorite things—I think it was extra special.”

For Luna team captain Ma‘a Tevaga, the game carried special meaning. The 2023 wildfire struck the day before he was set to begin his freshman year, destroying his family’s home and forcing them to relocate to Utah. Tevaga went on to play football at Timpview High School in Provo, Utah. Now, he’s proud to wear a Lahainaluna jersey, following in the footsteps of his father, who also played for the Lunas.

“I repped Lahaina as hard as I could, and let the world know where we’re from,” Tevaga, who’s now a senior, said. “The biggest thing that I think we can get from this is kōkua aku, kōkua mai. It’s an old Hawaiian saying that says ʻwe help you, you help us and we can grow together,’” Tevaga said.

Both teams will come together for dinner and a lū‘au Sunday night to cap off the trip. Plans are also underway for Paradise High to host Lahainaluna High for a Unity Bowl in the future.