In the make-your-own-adventure land of Oahu’s North Shore, there is spinning a fireknife, leaping from Laie Point, and no-blood, no-foul basketball on sun-baked courts.
Leonard Peters, a former University of Hawaii football standout, said his calabash nephew Nalu Emerson did all those activities. “Nalu’s like the other kids who grew up in Laie,” Peters said. “He used to be one of the boys chasing chickens around the community. Kids would do that to stay out of trouble … and, they like to say, is how they got their speed.”
And Emerson, like many of his childhood friends, pledged an allegiance to football. “He grew up playing football,” Peters said. “I coached him when he was at Kahuku (High). He’s a good player. He’s going to get an opportunity to show what he can do.”
After four UH seasons, mostly on the kick-coverage unit, Emerson is set to make his first start in Saturday’s road game against Oregon. Emerson will play in place of weak-side linebacker Logan Taylor, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury against Albany last weekend.
After Taylor exited in the fourth quarter, Albany drove to the UH 31, where the Great Danes faced a second-and-10. Emerson sacked Reese Poffenbarger for a 12-yard loss.
“Nalu is one of the most athletic guys in the whole locker room,” linebackers coach Chris Brown said. “He brings a toughness about him. … He’s probably our fastest blitzer that we’ve got. The speed he has from Point A to Point B is pretty impressive.”
Emerson was a hybrid linebacker at Kahuku, then was used mostly as a safety at UH. Near the end of last season, he accepted a proposal to move to outside linebacker. “The coaches talked to me, and I said, ‘I’d love to join the Lion’s Den,’” said Emerson, referencing the collective nickname of the linebackers.
But after playing safety at 190 pounds, Emerson knew he had to gain weight — and strength — to mix it up in the tackle box as a linebacker.
“In the trenches, it’s a little different there,” Emerson said. “You’ve got to be ready and alert at all times. I feel there’s a lot of responsibility in setting the front and knowing where the personnel is. I have to stay on my toes and listen to my coaches.”
Brown said Emerson, who now weighs 215, has made an easy adjustment to linebacker. “He’s so smart,” Brown said. “He picks things up so fast. He knows football. He knows where to be all the time.”
Emerson, who had a perfect cumulative grade-point average of 4,0 at Kahuku, was the class of 2019’s valedictorian. He credited his parents and his sister, who was valedictorian of her class. “She set the example for me to take school seriously,” Emerson said.
On the field, he draws inspiration from Peters and and the memory of Matt Faga, a former UH defensive lineman and Kahuku coach. Faga died two years ago. “Growing up, I always admired Coach Matt,” Emerson said.
From Peters, Emerson said, “I really looked up to him as an example on how to truly play the game. He played it with the tenacity and intensity of how it’s supposed to be played.”
Emerson is studying communications and finance at UH. “Coach Timmy (Chang) always tells us to manage our time and take care of the little things,” Emerson said. “Time is very important. It waits for nobody.”
Embracing that approach, Emerson and middle linebacker Isaiah Tufaga go over plays during their daily commutes between the North Shore and the Manoa campus. Emerson and Tufaga are the starting linebackers in UH’s 4-2-5 scheme. “We’ve been (car pooling) for a couple years now,” Emerson said. “It’s a long drive. It’s a lot of talking over our plays, a lot of visualization. We try to apply that on the field.”
