On Saturday, a pair of high school football teams at the heart of communities affected by wildfires will meet in the inaugural Unity Bowl.
Three years after the Lahaina wildfires, Lahainaluna High School will host California's Paradise High School for a football game at Sue D. Cooley Stadium, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.
Most members of Paradise High School's football team were elementary schoolers when the 2018 Camp Fire blazed through Northern California's Butte County, which includes Paradise. But like their Lahainaluna counterparts, their lives have never been the same since.
"There's going to be a football game that's going to be played, but I think it represents much more than that," Lahainaluna coach Dean Rickard told Aloha State Daily. "It's more than just a football game. It's basically a historic meeting between two teams and we're forever connected now by tragedy, resilience, and basically, the determination to rebuild after both of our communities suffered catastrophic wildfires."
Rickard was the co-head coach for the Lunas back in 2019, back when the school won its fourth consecutive HHSAA Division II title. That same season, Paradise won its first 12 games of the season, its first since the 2018 Camp Fire. Both teams served as sources of pride in their respective communities before tragedy struck and became large symbols of hope afterwards.
"Football has been like the catalyst for both towns, right? I mean, for their community, our community, it's a sense of unity and identity," Rickard says. "As long as we can stand together, we can be able to lift one another up and move forward with hope. We may be separated by thousands of miles, but the game is actually a celebration of shared healing and like I said before, a reminder that staying united allows us to rise, and that's what the game is gonna be about."
Paradise High School administrators initially reached out in 2024 with the idea of a home-and-home series with Lahainaluna, and the Lunas are planning to make the return trip to Paradise in 2027.
Paradise's team departed Northern California on early Thursday morning and made it to Maui thanks to multiple fundraising efforts, including a $15,000 donation from star NFL quarterback and Butte County native Aaron Rodgers.
On Sunday afternoon, Lahainaluna and Paradise's football teams will meet at the OUTRIGGER Kāʻanapali Beach Resort for a gathering between both programs, which also includes parents and coaches. Rickard calls it another opportunity for the teams to "talk story and build a brotherhood." Paradise will then head back home on Monday.
Activations include a lū‘au for both teams, organized by Maui chef Zach Sato, who also started a GoFundMe with the goal of putting on a memorable feast.
Paradise enters the game 1-1, while Lahainaluna is 0-2, an uncharacteristic start for a program that had been the dominant force in Maui high school football for over a decade. In 2024, Lahainaluna had its winning streak of consecutive Maui Interscholastic League games snapped at 46, but recovered in time to make the state playoffs, where it was knocked off by Leilehua.
When asked about his team in particular, Rickard believes Saturday's contest will have special meaning to Lahainaluna's seniors, who were freshmen during the 2023 wildfires.
"A lot of our seniors are still feeling the impacts because they still haven't rebuilt the homes yet. They're still displaced, whether it's FEMA housing or some other rental assisted housing," Rickard said. "A very emotional game for both towns. The high school kids from Paradise were like 9, 10 years old at the time, so they actually experienced it from a younger age, going through what they had to do through in the rebuild and where they're at now, and the community is coming back and thriving again.
"That is something that when we get together and we mingle and have camaraderie after the contest itself is done, that's where I think our kids are going to feel it more, and they're going to be developing lifelong friendships with these players, by sharing stories and I think it's good for these kids mentally, physically, and just good for the soul overall."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
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