By Paul Honda
phonda@starbulletin.com

A circle of sacrifices has woven through the her life.

Careena Onosai trusted wisdom and took the route one step at a time. Now, the circle is complete. She is a two-time state champion in the discus, an all-state first-teamer in volleyball.

The next voyage will literally take the Word of Life Academy student to a new world, one that she never really imagined or wanted. Speed and strength, however, equal power, and power is what she has to the nth degree.

Careena Onosai will be a UCLA Bruin this fall. “The place is huge,” says her father, Joe Onosai. “We have two hallways at our school.”

At UCLA, she has a chance to learn from the best field coaches in the country. The word “Olympian” is but a whisper today, but it has earned a place in the vocabulary of anyone who has seen Onosai’s talent.

She threw the discus 151 feet, 9 inches to rule the field as a sophomore. Last year, she put the shot 40-5, a personal best.

Track and field isn’t even her first love — or her second.

THEY DO everything together. Their chariot, a silver mini-van, takes them from Central Oahu to Kakaako daily, where Joe and Ann Onosai head the athletic department. Their oldest child, Talia, was the first to dive into varsity athletics. Careena and Shayna, just one year apart from each other, were also natural athletes.

That’s no surprise. Joe starred at Pac-Five, a 240-pound fullback who led the program to its only Prep Bowl championship in 1983. After a stellar career at Hawaii, he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. A serious neck injury, however, cut his promising career short.

Today, instead of a place in football immortality, Pastor Joe is enshrining believers into another hall of fame. The family that prays together stays together, but so does the ohana that plays together.

That’s how Joe and Ann kept their energetic clan of children on their toes at all times.

WORD OF Life didn’t have a gym to call home until this year, but seven years ago, the school was alive and well. The Firebrands made do with whatever facilities were available, and Careena’s dream was to follow in Talia’s footsteps.

“I looked up to her. We used to live by a park in Kaneohe, and I’d shoot baskets everyday with my sisters and dad,” she says.

Along with other fifth graders at Word of Life, they formed a team called the Warriors. By seventh grade, she was in Kalakaua basketball clinic. She was a basketball lifer.

Somewhere along the way, though, she gave volleyball a try. “It was sixth grade. I thought it was hard. I was a tomboy back then. I thought volleyball was for girlie-girls,” Careena admits.

It wasn’t until eighth grade that track and field became any kind of presence. “We were just starting up our track program,” Joe Onosai says. “I knew we had runners, but nothing else. I had an old shotput, an old discus. I told the girls, ‘Let’s go shoot some baskets.’”

Careena had no idea about her father’s grand plan, but she took to the strange field toys. “I actually caught on to the shotput first,” she says.

By her sophomore year, just two years after picking up her first discus, 5-foot-11 Careena was on pace to become one of the best throwers in Hawaii history.

Volleyball, however, was her best sport, at least then. And basketball? By spring of her junior year, her focus on track and field, and club volleyball made basketball an impossible fit. First love was done.

“Giving up basketball was hard. I’m close to a lot of our players,” she says. “But I’m glad I gave it up.” The commitment to volleyball led to a walk-on offer from Hawaii.

A MONTH AGO, Careena and her dad landed in Los Angeles for a visit to the UCLA campus. After a couple of days, UCLA was pleased, apparently. The partial-scholarship track-and-field offer was upped to a full ride.

Joe’s jaw dropped. Careena was stunned. After all, none of the UCLA coaches had seen her throw the discus in person.

Careena, who dreamed of playing volleyball at UH, suddenly had a dilemma on her hands. “I had a hard time when I came back from UCLA. If they were going to do a partial, I was just going to stay,” she says.

UCLA’s commitment to her has been remarkable, considering a lower-back injury that has kept her off the field.

“At first, I thought it was a strain,” Careena says of the injury, which occurred early in the club volleyball season. She played through it, just as she played through a stress fracture of a shin bone two years ago.

Careena didn’t stress about the back injury. She rehabilitated her back daily and regained enough strength to return to the game she loved first.

Her return to basketball invigorated the Firebrand program. They’ve lost their share of close games to some of the top Division II teams in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, but her height (5-9), strength and skills (17 points per game) have been invaluable.

“This year, I’m doing it for fun,” she says. “My sister is the man now.”
She is at least a week away from returning to the discus. Because of the absence, she has yet to qualify for the state championships.

FLORIDA IS on the other coast, but Selala Sua’s journey to UCLA has striking parallels to Careena Onosai’s. Sua was a three-sport standout, yet gave up her favorites to focus on track and field in college.

As UCLA’s discus coach, she sees tremendous potential in Careena. “She really believes in me. She thinks I can really go far as an athletic thrower,” Careena says. “She said that I’m someone who really works hard. I won’t be as good as the people there now, but I could if I keep working hard.”

When high-school track season is over, she’ll compete in as many as three major national meets, including one that is a qualifier for the Junior Nationals.
During the summer, she will also continue her year-round workouts. Weight training. Sprints on the sand of Ala Moana Beach Park. Plyometrics and core training with a medicine ball.

When UCLA’s indoor season begins in January, Careena will compete in the weight throw and the shotput.

When the outdoor season starts in March, she’ll be in four events. The Bruins like what she does in the discus and shotput, but they will also train her to excel in the javelin and hammer. “She’s always loved to throw things since she was little,” Ann Onosai says.

MID-APRIL IS NOT usually a time to envision the future or celebrate life-changing decisions. At Word of Life, where Brashton Satele signed a letter-of-intent to play football at UH one year ago, assemblies are becoming rather common.

When Careena signed her letter-of-intent last week, students and teachers alike choked up with emotion. “I was happy. It felt good to sign in front of all my friends at school,” she says.

Some of those friends see the Onosai girls working out in the new gym, which is a converted warehouse, and they feel compelled. At least six more throwers from tiny Word of Life have emerged under the tutelage of Joe Onosai.

A new weight room is on the way, one that Joe promises to be the best of any high school in the state. Careena won’t be around next year, but she lights up about the future of her school’s athletic program.

“Now, a lot of the off-season athletes are doing what we do,” she says.

The legacy is underway, and Careena has come full circle. Other equally talented student-athletes would have opted for more elite, traditional high schools. Careena has not a single regret, especially about being near her family in school and sports.

The time is coming, though, when there will be one more necessary sacrifice.
“The fact that we do everything together,” she says, “I’m going to miss them.”

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