Kadedin Ioane-Ogawa and Kahale Huddleston sat at a table inside the Vikings Gym and looked out at the crowd that numbered nearly 200 people or maybe more, a loud statement of support.
The two recent Hilo graduates were being celebrated for reaching their dream to play college football: Ioane-Ogawa will be a Statesmen and Huddleston a Rainbow Warrior.
Ioane-Ogawa will join William Penn, an NAIA school in Iowa, while Huddleston was recruited as a preferred walk-on at Hawaii, turning down a pair of lower-division scholarship offers.
“It was always my dream to go to a Division I school,” said Huddleston, who’ll move from running back to slotback. “I wanted to go to UH because it’s closer, and I wanted my family to be there with me.
“The team is great, and I would fit in perfectly with them. Rolo (coach Nick Rolovich) said the opportunity is there, and I just have to work hard.”
The BIIF Division I offensive player of the year, with the 4.5-second speed in the 40-yard dash, plans to major in either business or fire science.
William Penn is one of the recruiting bases for ace recruiter Jenny Block. Her daughter Maxine played at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. Block built several connections at Midwest schools and continues to funnel BIIF players there.
Ioane-Ogawa will major in engineering and wants to advance to aeronautical engineering.
“I want to pursue my childhood dream of building planes,” he said. “This scholarship is truly an opportunity for an island boy to explore what the world has to offer and allows me to pursue my dream while still being able to do what I love: playing football.”
Ioane-Ogawa was a 6-foot, 180-pound defensive end for the Vikings, who captured their fifth straight BIIF Division I championship and the league’s first state title with a 35-19 win over Damien.
If there was ever a peanut butter-and-jelly pair of teammates, that would be Ioane-Ogawa and Huddleston.
They attended kindergarten together at Kaumana Elementary and played together as 5-year-old teammates on the Panaewa Alii football team.
Then they became BIIF and state champions together and now role models as well.
When the state pride motto — local boy does good — rings true, there’s an embrace by a strong support system, and it showed up in force on Wednesday night.
From the Panaewa Alii, old coach Sergio Mamone was there. From the Puna Panthers, coach Kel Lee was there. From the Vikings, former coach David Baldwin and coach Kaeo Drummondo were there.
“It was truly a blessing to have my family, friends, and coaches from the past and present there to be a part of my special day,” Ioane-Ogawa said. “I felt loved to have all those who truly support me there to watch me sign with William Penn. It felt comforting to have Kahale there because we started together, and it felt like we were taking the next step together as well.”
Family sport
One of Ioane-Ogawa’s uncles is Myles Ioane, a 2004 Waiakea graduate, two-time BIIF player of the year and the most dominant pitcher over a two-year span, going 15-0 with a 0.61 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 69 innings. (He later pitched at UH.)
But the family sport was football, and it started long ago.
“It’s almost like a tradition for the men in our family to play. It started with my great grandfather Kahuwila Ioane,” Ioane-Ogawa said. “He passed it on to my papa Duke Ioane and his brothers Mikey and Randy. Then came my uncles Mike, Myles, and Josh.
“Another person who inspired me is my uncle Darren Naihe. All these men loved football so much that they were coaches at some point in their lives. I also thank my dad (Frank Ogawa Jr.) for coming to my games.”
Unlike Huddleston, Ioane-Ogawa wasn’t an instant hit.
As a sophomore, he was a starter on the junior varsity. In his junior year, he moved up to the varsity where he worked to earn a starting spot as a senior.
Ioane-Ogawa didn’t land on the All-BIIF Division I team. But he had someone who always had his back, his mom Roslyn Ioane-Ogawa.
“My mom has taught me many life lessons, but the one that sticks is to never doubt yourself before you try it because if you believe you can’t, you won’t, but if you believe you can, you will,” he said.
Kahale’s inspiration
The 5-10, 175-pound Huddleston had a monster statistical senior season: 1,458 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns.
Huddleston announced his presence to the football community as a junior at the Division I state tournament at Keaau High’s stadium.
The speedster with the slippery moves took Leilehua to the woodshed for 216 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown run, on just 16 carries in a 26-25 first round loss.
Like Ioane-Ogawa, Huddleston’s foundation for success, both on and off the football field, was built at home.
“My mom (Melanie) is my No. 1 inspiration. She’s always the one there for me and helping me with everything, like school work, college applications, etc., and she’s such a strong person,” he said. “She has a great heart for people. I look up to my father (Kahale Huddleston Sr.) because he’s always pushed me to be better.
“He’s such a hard worker and helps a lot for the family. He’s been the football star in the family. He played at Baldwin (on Maui) and Linfield, so I just wanted to be like him.”
Asked for the best examples he and Ioane-Ogawa displayed as Viking teammates, Huddleston detailed two gems.
“I saw that one of my teammates was down after we lost to Leilehua,” Huddleston said. “So, I ran over there to tell him, ‘You did great.’
“What I saw Kadedin do was after practice we had to run, and one of our teammates was last. He ran over there to run with him and helped him finish through.”
At the Vikings Gym, there was a moment when Ioane-Ogawa and Huddleston stared at the crowd that emphasized the local connection. There was an unspoken loud and clear message: We got your back.
For recruiting help, contact Jenny Block at 310-743-3216.
To submit an On Scholarship candidate, email kjakahi@hawaiitribune-herald.com.