HondaReport.com

Tanuvasa’s legacy lives on at Pearl City

By Paul Honda

Editor

HondaReport.com

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004

PEARL CITY—The world of football, especially in the trenches, is unforgiving, even brutal.

The universe of a teenager can be far more stifling, even if the strain is far more mental than physical.

Chris Maake faced plenty of pressure situations on a Pearl City squad making a run for the playoffs. After years of downslide, the Chargers were rejuvenated in recent seasons under a new coach.

Maake, a sophomore, started on the Pearl City offensive line. Being talented and being ready, though, are two different aspects. A youngster on a senior-heavy squad, Maake could easily have become isolated.

Instead, he flourished. “I don’t have a father, so coach taught me a lot, about being a man. How to respect your elders,” Maake said.

Pearl City reached the playoffs, capping its finest season after a long dry spell. The off-season arrived, and Maake relaxed at home one evening, enjoying the NCAA basketball tournament on TV.

“Afterward, I was watching the news and they said, ‘Pearl City’s football coach passed away.’ I thought it was a mistake,” Maake said.

Onosai Tanuvasa Jr. had died in San Diego, Calif. Tanuvasa, helping family make arrangements for the funeral of one of his brothers, had suffered from cancer. His kidney had given out even before he boarded the plane from Honolulu International Airport.

“We’re just going to play. Everything this season is for him,” Maake said.

Onosai Tanuvasa was 52 years old.

Watson Tanuvasa was barely out of diapers when older brother Onosai was beginning to make a name for himself as a running back at Farrington High School. Ten years younger, Watson took to the game of football as naturally as Onosai.

“We played a lot on the streets at Kam IV housing,” Watson recalled. “There were a lot of us who loved to play, like the Nogas.”

At 42, Watson Tanuvasa is where he has always been meant to be, even in the face of tragedy. “We got our discipline from our father (Onosai Sr.). His standards were far ahead of his time,” Watson said. “We’ve continued what he started.”

The family lived in Salt Lake for a time before moving back to Kalihi. When Onosai decided to stay in the district, Watson asked to stay with him. He became a Player of the Year at Moanalua High School. When his playing days were done, so was his connection to the game, until last year, when he became a linebackers coach for Onosai at Pearl City.

It started as a come-to-practice-when-you-can deal. Managing the Nimitz location of City Mill certainly placed time constraints on his return to the game, but Watson was content.

Then, Onosai passed away. The Pearl City staff, so dependent on its visionary and leader, was paralyzed with heartbreak and surprise. But, slowly, they gathered their composure. Spring football practices were nearing. The kids needed assurance.

After a week, the staff moved forward, and spring ball ensued. “We had a meeting on April 12. We just kept going on,” Watson said. By May, the athletic department named him as the new head coach. That gave the program continuity—one of the key components of a good program—with a staff that returns mostly intact.

He turned to the unofficial dean of Oahu Interscholastic Association football coaches, Aiea coach Wendall Say.

“After one of our games, he actually came over and talked to me. I was still playing. He was an assistant (at Aiea) then, so he’s been around for a long, long time,” Watson said. “When I saw the dedication he puts in, it was scary. I was overwhelmed.”

The relationships of a veteran staff made the transition easier. So did his bond with Shane. “There’s no way I’d do this without Shane,” Watson said.

And then, there is some unfinished business. “My brother told me his dream, his vision. He kept telling the kids about the promised land, which meant playing at the stadium,” Watson said. A schedule shakeup left Pearl City’s opening-round playoff game with Farrington at Bino Neves Stadium—the Chargers’ home field.

“I think he felt that he cheated the kids. I saw the disappointment in his face when the game was moved,” Watson said of the circumstances.

Time has passed. “The kids asked, ‘Are you gonna be like your brother?’ I thought about halftime against Mililani,” Watson said. “We were losing and he went crazy. His heart was in it, and he had to shock them into fighting back. We lost that game, but they never gave up. They kept fighting.”

For Shane Tanuvasa, coaching and dad are words joined at the hip, so to speak. After high school—with the exception of his college years on the mainland—Shane spent every football season coaching with Onosai.

“My uncle reminds me a lot of my dad,” Shane said. The similarities have a bittersweet taste for the 29-year-old offensive coordinator. “We’re still trying to cope with it. It’s hard, but we’re a tight-knit family.”

The sudden loss was especially painful for the younger children: Michael, a recent Pearl City graduate, and Karly, 14. Though Onosai’s health had been declining, it wasn’t obvious.

“They didn’t know the severity,” Shane said.

Karly, the youngest, was very close to her dad. Every morning, Onosai drove Karly to school. Every afternoon, he picked her up.

She was there, in San Diego, with her father. “To the end, she told him, ‘Dad, you gotta fight it.’ And he kept fighting,” Watson said.

After his death, the prospect of attending Pearl City, with so many reminders of her father, was too much to bear. Karly transferred to McKinley.

“I brought her up here last week,” Shane said. “She’s still having a hard time.”

Slowly, but surely, everyone has come to grips with the loss of Onosai Tanuvasa. At practice, ask one of the managers to point out Coach Tanuvasa, and you get three answers: Coach Watson, Coach Shane and Coach Onosai.

“Coach ‘Sai … he passed away,” she said softly and tersely.

Practice at Pearl City had a different feel, at least in preseason. “His energy’s not here,” Maake said.

Steven King was a first-time player when he joined the team last year. The soccer standout quickly made a contribution, becoming a starter at safety. He realized soon enough that his head coach was different.

“After practice, he’d stay and wash our stuff, our towels,” King recalled. “That way it was all clean the next day. He always taught us things that apply to life.”

When Onosai passed, there was absolute shock among the players. Nobody knew he had cancer.

“I was asking, ‘Why?’ Every day at practice, he was fine,” King said. “For some of the players, Coach ‘Sai was like their father.”

King, now a senior, doesn’t hesitate to remind some teammates that time is valuable. After all, if there is a legacy that Onosai Tanuvasa left behind, it is the importance of giving maximum effort and total focus, not later, but now.

As a water break at practice ended, a few Charger defensive players lollygagged behind at the coolers. King recognized the situation.

“Come on, you guys, we gotta focus,” he said without yelling. “We came here to practice, not flirt with the watergirls.”

Nobody answered him back. Everyone understood. The players returned to the field and continued working.

In Onosai’s three years at the helm, leadership became a matter of trust from the top down. “My dad didn’t micromanage. He entrusted the offense and defense to these coaches,” Shane said. “He was the motivator. He got the kids going.”

He also got his coaches going. “I always thought, ‘I’d never coach without my dad,’” Shane recalled.

“But with my uncle, it’s easy.”