Keoni Bush-Loo played football for the Arizona Wildcats.
He was high-energy, smiling, one of the most popular players on the team.
Bush-Loo hailed from Honolulu and celebrated his heritage. He performed the Haka with his UA teammates before every home game, scowling and screaming in Maori during the pregame war chant.
The Wildcats will take on Hawaii on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Makani Kema-Kaleiwahea will start at defensive end for the Warriors.
Kema-Kaleiwahea is a football player, but he’s a whole lot more than that.
He’s a leader for the Rainbow Warriors, a husband and father to two children.
Bush-Loo came to Arizona as a teenager; he left the Wildcats as Kema-Kaleiwahea, a man. He moved back home to be closer to family and to better care for his children while he completes his degree and college football career.
Makani has that positive energy, the smile, the enthusiasm for football, and life. He’s not the same person who stepped onto Arizona’s campus as a freshman in 2012, but how could he be?
How could anyone?
“The emotions are going to be high,” Makani said. “The state of Arizona and the city of Tucson bring a lot of emotions to me.
“I went through a lot over there.”
• • •
Just days before Arizona began training camp in 2014, Makani threw a Hawaiian feast for 25 of his closest friends on the team. The Wildcats ate kalua pork and other comfort foods prepared by Makani’s girlfriend, Brianna Summers.
Late in the evening, Makani told his teammates the big news: He and Brianna were getting married. His Arizona teammates cheered.
Makani and Brianna, high school sweethearts, tied the knot the day before camp began.
“I think that was a first for me,” UA coach Rich Rodriguez said at the time. “That someone got married during camp, and didn’t miss a meeting, didn’t miss a practice, and didn’t miss a meal. His wife is an angel.”
It was a rare happy moment during a terrible time in Makani’s life.
Makani learned his five siblings were being abused by one of their parents both in Hawaii and after the family followed him to Arizona. At age 18, Makani — he was Keoni Bush-Loo then — took steps to protect his siblings. The parent was arrested, and Makani became his siblings’ caregiver.
With assistance from Casey Family Programs, a national foundation focused on foster care and child welfare, Makani connected three of his siblings with extended family members who were willing to adopt them. Makani and Brianna adopted his two brothers.
Makani had to grow up fast. One parent is now dead, and the other is in prison.
“It really gives me goosebumps,” said UA linebacker Jake Matthews, a close friend. “He’s such a caring, great guy. … It’s good that now he’s home, he’s getting help from his family.”
• • •
In Honolulu, the Kema-Kaleiwaheas have the kind of assistance that all new parents need. Makani can focus on school — and football — without having to worry about Brianna or the kids.
Well, he worries less.
“Being a parent is stressful. Being back home made it so much easier,” he said. “It set my kids up for success. It set myself up for success, and my wife as well. It put us and my whole family in a better situation to thrive in the environment we live in, and hopefully just set a better future for all of us.”
Makani’s family helps take care of the boys. His mother-in-law is a godsend. And Rodriguez was right about Brianna: She’s an angel.
“They’re the reason why I get to do what I do every day,” Makani said. “I’m so thankful for them.”
The Rainbow Warriors have struggled, losing to California in Australia and at Michigan by a combined 80 points. They had to rally at home last week to beat Tennessee-Martin.
Makani, however, has been a bright spot. The 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound senior leads the team with two sacks. He’s on pace to top the 23 tackles and 2ƒ sacks he posted as a junior.
Makani said he’s “100 times better” as a player than he was at Arizona, and that’s not the Wildcats’ fault. He has the time now.
“I put myself in a situation … where I can thrive in the football world, I can get in those extra workouts, the extra film sessions, and I can go work on my craft while my kids are with my mom,” he said. “I can make the trip to school and work on the field, focus on myself, and try to become a better football player. I think I’ll surprise some people in how much, as a player, I’ve grown.”
• • •
Mention Makani’s name around Arizona’s facilities, and his former teammates light up.
UA defensive lineman Sani Fuimaono calls him “Oni” — short for Keoni.
Others he played with call him something else.
“He was my brother, and he will forever, always, be my brother,” said linebacker DeAndre’ Miller. “He had the most respect out of anybody in the linebacker room for what he was going through in his life.”
Linebacker Cody Ippolito said he’s never respected a teammate more than his old friend.
“The stuff he’s been through with his family, off the field, the kid is a man and I respect him to death,” Ippolito said. “It’s a lifelong brother, especially as a linebacker. We’ve been through hell together. Just because he’s somewhere else playing against us, it doesn’t really matter.”
Mention Makani to Matthews, and he lights up. The two haven’t seen each other in two years. Matthews is hoping to take a picture with Makani and all the guys still left from that linebacker room.
“That’s exactly why we play football. It’s the brotherhood, it’s the friendship, it’s the long-lasting relationships you build,” Matthews said. “Your play on the field, it’s great, you want to win, but it’s going to end someday. The things you have left 40 years down the road is your friends, and that’s the coolest thing.”
Fuimaono got married last year, and is the father of a 6-month old girl. He has a greater appreciation for what Makani went through. Fuimaono calls it “big-people stuff.”
“Thinking of other things besides going to school, chasing girls, playing football, learning your playbook,” he said. “Now you’ve got to think about paying your bills, making sure your kids have food on their table, a roof over their heads.”
• • •
Saturday night will be strange for Makani, in part because it’ll feel so familiar. He’ll get dressed in the same Arizona Stadium locker room he used as a Wildcat. Since the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility opened, the visiting team dresses in the Wildcats’ old facilities.
Makani will visit with old friend Anu Solomon and his former teammate during the pregame. He’ll look around at his former home and think of his current one.
Makani wishes his two boys could be at Arizona Stadium, but they’ll surely watch from far away.
Makani’s time in Tucson was a dark one. Now, there’s light. And love.
“I’m excited to see the boys, some of the coaches who definitely helped me out when I was in one of the darkest times of my life when everything was going downhill and Arizona was there for me. That Arizona program is so awesome, and I thank them, I left on good terms.
“Those guys, really, they saved …” Makani said, then paused. A deep breath.
“They kept me going,” he said. “They put their jobs on the line trying to help me.”
Makani Kema-Kaleiwahea
was once a Wildcat.
Now he’s a Warrior, in more ways than one.
