The name makes you look twice, just to make sure you read it correctly.
If there were a list of all the club volleyball teams on the Big Island, something about the teams that were inspired by Charlene Manu would remain a curiosity, a reason to want to know more.
It’s a good reason.
A Mother’s Prayer, the club volleyball team organized by Poli Olevao-Kahapea eight years ago, and one of the many that will be competing all week in the 61st Haili Tournament, owes its distinction to the firmly held beliefs of her mother, Manu, decades ago, when Charlene’s boys Sampson and John were entering high school.
“She wanted so much for us all to succeed, and we were all athletic, like she was,” Olevao-Kahapea said over coffee last week. “She always thought athletics — football for my brothers — was the best way to channel us into getting a good education after high school.”
Manu was famous in the extended family for her devotion to prayer, her strong belief that there is something beyond ourselves out there, but the volleyball team wasn’t organized to force a specific religion or world view on players and coaches.
Instead, Olevao-Kahapea organized a volleyball club with a purpose that goes beyond winning matches. They want to use volleyball to help those you might think of as underprivileged, or those who, by design or accident, find themselves in difficult situations.
Unwed mothers, children of alcoholics or dysfunctional families, offspring of drug-addled or criminal parents, people who have been bullied and need support? You get the idea, these are the people in our part of the world who are facing real life struggles.
The concept behind A Mother’s Prayer is as simple as it gets — let us use this sport to toss you what may be a lifeline back into the culture. They want to provide a supportive atmosphere with new friends and, yes, let volleyball take your mind off your daily struggles and provide you a bit of hope and inspiration.
Charlene Manu, a Hilo High School graduate, was a talented athlete who was struggling to get through BYU-Hawaii, taking part time classes here and there when the schedule allowed.
A former trainer from BYUH who knew of her softball talents alerted the coach at Santa Ana where that trainer was then employed, 10 years after she graduated high school.
“It was a miracle,” Manu said in a telephone conversation, “I had an opportunity and that summer (1980), I decided to try it out. At my age then I wanted to see how I could do against all those mainland haole girls.
“I found out right away I could play with them,” she said, “and then they found out I could kick their butts.”
The experience provided her with refreshed look at life and how sports can be a vehicle to bring you bring you some joy and purpose. She had seen college players with bad attitudes or who were living through difficult circumstances get revitalized in sports.
The came her own sons, John and Samson, good athletes who liked football. Charlene and her husband encouraged the boys in every sport, they enjoyed them all but seemed to settle on football. Then she had an idea.
“Mother’s intuition, I guess,” she said. “I knew inside, I really knew, if I could get them in a high achieving football program, they could earn their college scholarships.
“For me, it’s all about education, I was not going to be the mother whose kids couldn’t find their way.”
It took some thought and deliberation before she determined the best place for her boys to attend high school was at Kahuku, on the north side of Oahu. They found a family the boys could live with, but Charlene wasn’t happy with their academics so she moved over herself, got an apartment, worked as a substitute teacher and kept the boys headed in the right direction.
The two boys and two daughters earned full ride scholarships in college, a third daughter was tragically killed when the bike she was riding was hit by a car.
It’s been a struggle, life is a struggle, Charlene would say, so you need to arm yourself with education and purpose to fight those battles.
Anything’s possible, right? She went back to college after 10 years and provided leadership and talent the team had lacked. She had the vision for her kids, she moved to Oahu for them and today, they all understand and they reflect her vision.
“I want people to see these sports the way I know them to be,” Manu said. “I remember in softball someone saying to me, ‘It’s only a game, don’t worry about it,’ and yes, it is a game and there will be other games, but don’t put it down like that.
“Only a game?” she said. “I busted my rear end for years, I sacrificed, I did lots of things to get something out of the game and the game paid me back. It is NOT just a game, if you are willing to work and grow, it can be a vehicle to help you through life. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
The fun of the game is a spark. It brings back childhood memories and instills the importance of being part of the group, engaging with team members, celebrating a point, or a win.
“As you play sports through your life, it helps keep you motivated,” Olevao-Kahapea said. “You have a job, hopefully, and you have your family, your kids, whatever it may be, but playing a sport can give you so much.
“Education is the key to everything, more now than ever, but as we grow up and we realize maybe we won’t be a professional athlete after all, we can still connect with that team feeling, the idea of being a part of something bigger than you, where you just need to do your part. Having that in your life can bring you some peace and usually a better look at where you are, so to speak, on your path.”
They are coaches now, Olevao-Kahapea with A Mother’s Prayer, while helping out other teams, individual players and coaches, and her mother is still actively pushing concepts of team and shared interests.
The prayer is not that every child has a mom who moves away with them for high school so they can pursue their athletic and educational goals. The prayer is that every athlete is afforded the opportunity to see sports as something more than “a game.”
Olevao-Kahapea attended Punahou, with her mom’s assistance, and helped them get to the state tournament four years running. She got a scholarship to Cypress College in Orange County, Calif., which was no small feat for a 5-10 middle blocker who often faced 6-foot or 6-1 strikers, but her leaping ability and aggressive play helped her get her collegiate start and then she played out her career at UH-Hilo.
“Hilo is smaller town, but there really are a lot of athletic people here,” she said. “We don’t see a lot of kids who go to high school here and know where to go after that.
“This is where we want to come in,” she said. “A Mother’s Prayer is the vehicle, we hope, to keep those kids motivated, to give them new friends who are supportive and to help them get ideas about college.”
Confidence in life is a big deal and we have examples every day of kids who seem to have given up and turned away instead of facing the future with a degree of support and a hunch that they can find their way.
If they see A Mother’s Prayer as some kind of crutch, maybe that’s actually a good description of its purpose. Break an ankle? Twist a knee? Fractured a leg bone? You need a crutch for a while to get you back in the flow, then you can take over yourself.
“We’re here to help pull you through, that’s what I would tell them,” Olevao-Kahapea said of youngsters trying to plot their course through life. “We’re going to help you be a part of a team, where you will find motivation and a spirit that will lift you up. Local families with issues, single parent families? We can help. We can help you or your child put a smile on their face and feel encouraged about their life. That’s all we want to do.”
Well, there is competition, too. Win or lose, the coaches and players for A Mother’s Prayer will know at the end of the week, if they don’t know already, that being on those teams counts for a lot more than just playing games.
Whistleblower or other tips? Questions? Email Bart at barttribuneherald@gmail.com