Carvalho returns home as an AFL all-star

In this case, Brennen Carvalho is more than happy to bring his work home with him.

Football has led Carvalho on an expansive journey since graduating from Kamehameha, having held addresses in Oregon, Wisconsin and Arizona before spending the past two seasons with the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League.

The latest — and longest — leg comes with a chance to play in Hawaii in Saturday’s AFL all-star game at Blaisdell Arena.

"It’s an opportunity to me play at home, to get to see my family and let them see what I’ve been doing," Carvalho said as he headed onto the field for Thursday morning’s practice at Aloha Stadium.

Carvalho will take his game back indoors for Saturday’s exhibition at Blaisdell before the travel party continues its tour to Beijing for another game next week as part of AFL China’s campaign to introduce the game in Asia.

Thursday’s practice session took Carvalho — who still calls Kauai home — back to Aloha Stadium for the first time since 2008, when he capped his college career with an appearance in the Hula Bowl.

After being named the top center in the Football Championship Subdivision in 2007 while playing for Portland State, Carvalho spent a year on the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad. A knee injury led to his release in 2009 and he’s played arena football for the past four years, establishing himself as one of the AFL’s top linemen.

Carvalho was named the first-team All-Arena center in 2011 and again this season after helping the Soul to a 12-6 regular season and a berth in the ArenaBowl. He’s played in the past three championship games, the first with the Arizona Rattlers and the past two with Philadelphia, coming up one win short of the title each time.

"Quarterbacks are very important, but you don’t have a great quarterback without a great center and Brennen Carvalho is one of the best," said Philadelphia coach Clint Dolezel, who will lead the East team on Saturday.

"He holds down the line, great locker room guy. He’s good off the field, that’s very important to me, he’s not just a good football player but a good person down deep."

Dolezel distilled success in the arena game down to "all about winning one-on-one matchups." That includes line play, with three linemen protecting the quarterback.

"The center position in big-field ball is real cerebral, thinking about where you have to go, who you gotta block," Carvalho said. "In this game I’m thinking about how I’m going to block this one guy and what he’s going to do because everything is one on one."

Philadelphia quarterback Dan Raudabaugh, who will be taking snaps from Carvalho again on Saturday, takes particular interest in his center’s ability to hold his ground.

"I always tell him I think he’s best player in the league," said Raudabaugh, who ranked fourth in the AFL with 96 touchdown passes this season. "He’s a dominant force down there in the line.

"When he’s in there in the middle for us, it puts a lot of worries at ease."

Carvalho’s father, Kauai mayor Bernard Carvalho, is pretty busy these days and his veto of a controversial GMO bill made headlines on Thursday. Brennen leaves politics to his dad and is looking forward to having his family make the trip over to Oahu for the game on Saturday.

Carvalho had some time to relax on Kauai between the ArenaBowl in August and the all-star tour. While returning to the NFL remains a goal, he appreciates having the opportunity to see where the game will take him next.

"I have to do it until I can’t," Carvalho said. "Football is going to be fun, it only lasts a while and once it’s done it’s done. I’m just fortunate to play and even more fortunate to come home and play."