There are no professional hairstylists and barbers in the vicinity, but Aiden Manutai sensed that he has a specific superpower.
He can do a great haircut.
“That surprised me,” said his father, former Hawaii linebacker Lincoln Manutai. “He asked to do that so he could make money, which is good. He does it out of the kindness of his heart. I think he learned watching other people cut hair. YouTube. I would let him cut my hair, but I’ve gone bald.”
To be clear, not everyone gets a free cut.
“He just cut his brothers’ hair. My wife’s brother got married (Friday) night, so Aiden cut LJ and Liam’s hair. We had to pay for them, $45.”
For a busy student-athlete with a 3.7 grade-point average and a scholarship to Cal, it is a worthwhile expense in the Manutai household. Aiden Manutai is a two-time Star-Advertiser All-State defensive back who has mastered both cornerback and safety. He and Madden Soliai are the veterans in Kahuku’s talented secondary.
“I first saw him as a freshman in 2021 at Mililani,” said Waianae coach Vince Nihipali, who was at Moanalua at the time. “He started and stood out from day one. He’s just become the total package of a defensive back. He’s got great size, speed and is a ballhawk.”
Manutai is 6 feet, 195 pounds and runs a 4.5 40-yard dash.
“He just got better every year and he works extremely hard at his craft,” Nihipali added. “He’s a combo of former Red Raiders Tigi Hill and Soli Afalava. I see him as a safety or nickel in college. He’s big enough to play in the box and fast enough to play outside. He’s talented enough to even play an outside linebacker position if he gets bigger. He’s got the frame to do whatever he or the school he goes to wants. He’s the total package.”
Konawaena coach Brad Uemoto pitted his team against Kahuku in preseason.
“I first saw Aiden play when he was a sophomore. At the time, he was a shutdown corner. What is very impressive is his position change to safety. It’s not common to see a great corner translate to the safety position and have no fall-off in his impact on defense,” Uemoto said. “He reminds me of Charles Woodson. Lockdown coverage, has a knack for turnovers, returns kicks and has the ability to play offense. I see him playing safety at Cal and his ability will translate very well. Hopefully, he gets an opportunity early on in his career and joins the list of the many great defensive backs to make the NFL from Hawaii.”
Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho sees similarities to playmakers of the recent past.
“You know, Aiden is like a combination of Stokes Botelho and Keala Santiago Jr. Smooth like Stokes, but he can do everything like Keala,” he said.
Keala Santiago Jr. has been helping at practice with his father, defensive backs coach Keala Santiago Sr.
“Every great secondary out of Kahuku had a solid front seven, and the strength of our team is the front seven in their own right,” Carvalho noted. “They’re blazing their own path. Aiden is honestly a quiet leader who grinds every day.”
The path to Kahuku was written long before Manutai realized it was destiny.
He was a baseball player, a kid who grew up playing the game since he was 8. Trained by Timo Donahue, former Damien head coach and a co-worker of Lincoln Manutai’s at Hawaiian Airlines. In baseball, Manutai was a catcher with all the potential in the world. Even football, which he began playing at 5, took a bit of a back seat.
During Pylon in the summer of 2021, Manutai suffered a torn left labrum. As a freshman on Mililani’s varsity football team that fall, he played while wearing a harness. Despite rehab therapy, after football he was not cleared to play baseball. Within a couple of days, he talked with his father, then they spoke with his mother, Anu.
“When he was younger, he wasn’t much of a football player. He played because his dad played football, but he was a great baseball player. He went to Mililani for baseball,” she said. “When he decided he was going with football full force, I was crying. We really had to talk about it.”
Aiden Manutai remembers the moment well.
“My mom was sad when I stopped. She always said I was better in baseball than football. Catching was fun. I love throwing out people. That was the fun part. In eighth grade, it wasn’t too hard. If I were to do it now, I think it would be hard,” Manutai said. “I’m graduating early, so there’s zero percent of me playing baseball now. When I get to Cal, I’ll get an opportunity to learn the playbook and play early. I love Cal and what they do. I fit in that.”
That’s what a torn labrum did for Mililani baseball and football, and Kahuku football.
“If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he would’ve stayed at Mililani for sure,” Lincoln Manutai said. “Baseball is definitely safer, but we enjoy watching him play baseball. He just said, if football is his only sport, his plan is to go to Kahuku and play there. I said, ‘Of course.’ That’s a no-brainer. It has to do with coaching. The coaches there develop a lot of DBs, not just playing it, but developing IQ and next-level type.”
Coming to Kahuku brought the Manutai ohana full circle. Lincoln played linebacker at Kahuku, matriculated through the small-college and JUCO route before playing at Hawaii for June Jones. He reunited with his high school sweetheart, Anu, and Aiden is the oldest of their four children. Since relocating as a sophomore, Aiden has made fishing and hunting a part of his beloved country life.
“That’s where I’m from, how I grew up, riding dirt bikes, going into the mountain, hunting, surfing,” Lincoln Manutai said. “I was hoping he would pick it up.”
Manutai hits the mountain and ocean with teammates Bodhi Kaanga, Lono Solomon and Isaiah Joaquin.
“We go fishing at Punaluu and Hauula. We try for ulua, papio, o‘io. We just ate a papio this week. I caught that,” Manutai said. “We went out at 11 p.m. and didn’t come home until 4 a.m. Punaluu, full moon. We caught 12. Kayaked it. Wore our headlamps. I caught the most. It’s just my pole setup. We use fresh tako or shrimp. The tako is still blinking. Isaiah goes to dive for them. We know how to hunt, too. Punaluu. We caught two (pigs) last week. Big enough to where I didn’t want to pack it. Lono did that. We cut it up so it wasn’t that heavy, feed it to the dogs.”
Sometimes, hunting instincts carry over to the gridiron. Or is it the other way around?
“I think hunters make good football players because you’re patient,” Manutai said. “You keep moving and once you hear the dogs bark, you start sprinting.”
His success as a cornerback translated to safety, and when needed, he fills in at wide receiver. His picturesque, airborne leap for a 34-yard touchdown in double coverage on Saturday was the offensive highlight of his season.
Top-ranked Campbell won the game, 21-13, but Manutai’s incredible play kept Kahuku in striking distance.
“I just remember seeing the ball and catching it. Taking it,” Manutai said, adorned in a mountain of snack leis after the senior night game.
On the defensive side, covering inside receivers, he was tested a few times. His future Cal teammate, Campbell quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, found more success against some of Kahuku’s less-experienced defensive backs.
“My first time seeing him play was freshman year, Mililani and Campbell,” said Sagapolutele, who was on the Saint Louis I-AA team that year. “I just remember him catching two or three picks against Campbell. He’s definitely got more physicality now. He’s way stronger and has great hands still. He reminds me of a Jamal Adams type of safety. It’s pretty cool just seeing that we both are balling. It means we can help our college team when we get there. He’s picked me off before, so I’m happy it didn’t happen (on Saturday).”
Kahuku and Campbell could meet again in the OIA playoffs. Possibly in the state tournament.
“It was good. We’re just competing so it was definitely fun,” Manutai said.
Kahuku is a three-time defending state champion, but with the loss to Campbell finished third in the OIA Open Division. With the return of Mana Carvalho from injury, the arrival of former St. John Bosco quarterback Matai Fuiava and a bye week ahead, Kahuku is in lab mode. If this is the floor, they may have a remarkable peak ahead.
“For sure. We know that. We just love that. Everybody’s kind of topping out their game while we’re still going up the hill. The main thing is we’re getting better every week,” Manutai said. “It’s a little different catching the ball from Matai. He’s got a little bit more spin on it.”
After a light, three-class schedule this fall, he will enroll at Cal in January and begin college life. The Golden Bears will lose several key defenders to graduation, so the door of opportunity is golden. Mom has mixed emotions about Aiden graduating early.
“I understood the reason why, so he could get a head start. But even today, I still cry all the time knowing that my time is so short with him. With a first child, for a mom the bond is so different. I’m so close to him. Even when he’s going on football trips, I’m crying. He says, ‘Mom, it’s only for a few days.’ I don’t like when my family is split up,” Anu said.
When she carried Aiden, he was two weeks overdue.
“He was my hardest labor. I was in the hospital for one week afterward. He was so calm. That’s why his middle name is La‘iloa, calm and long. That little human came out of me and did all that to me,” she said.
The damage was not enough to stop her from having more children, but her doctor cautioned her sternly.
“He said, you need to stop eating so much. I gained the most with him. I craved bacon burgers all the time and that’s his favorite now. I put on so much weight that it caused a hard labor,” she said.
Anu Manutai gained wisdom with the next three pregnancies.
“I ate salads, ate healthier, just popped them out. My third son, we left the hospital the next day,” she recalled. “We took them trick or treating the next day.”
The family is busy with the constant activities of Ayree, a freshman, seventh grader Lincoln Jr., and third grader Liam. In less than three months, they’ll say goodbye to their oldest sibling. Like former Kahuku linebacker Liona Lefau, who graduated early and departed to Texas, Manutai wants to study the playbook and acclimate immediately in Berkeley.
“He deserves the opportunity. He’s worked for it,” Lincoln Manutai said. “I’m excited, man. It’s his time. I understand it’s his time, but his mom loves on our kids hard. She’s going to miss him.”
The process of growing from childhood to adulthood takes a willing attitude to be coached. Parented.
“The great thing is he still listens to us,” Anu Manutai said. “This journey we’ve been on, we’re still learning as we go. He trusts us to know that this decision we all make as a family is the right one, hopefully. There’s a lot of sacrifices that have been made.”
Dad sees all the potential ahead of his oldest child.
“I’m most proud of him becoming a man. He understood his assignment as the oldest. However he behaves, his siblings are following,” Lincoln Manutai said.
Before he boards the plane to the Bay Area, Aiden Manutai has one last goal.
“He wants to do a clinic like Liona did. Aiden is thinking about others. He wants to make an impact on the youth,” Lincoln Manutai said. “He wants to coach and I love it. I coached him from when he was born, even until today. Now, we just talk story, we just have conversations.”
Once football season is over, the window closes quickly. Departure date looms. Who will cry first at the airport?
“My mom and sister will cry, 100%,” Aiden Manutai said. “I’m not too sure about my dad.”
Adventures are ahead. Manutai’s bucket list mentions Europe, but hunting on another island or two belongs in it.
“I heard Molokai is a good spot. Lots of deer,” he said. “Lanai, too.”
Q&A
Aiden Manutai
Kahuku football; 6-0, 195, senior
Top 3 movies/shows
1. “Cars”
“The first one. I grew up watching ‘Cars’ and that is my favorite. I’ve seen it at least 50 times. I saw it last month.”
2. “Toy Story” series
“Let’s just go with all of them.”
3. “Bad Boys”
“I just watched all of them.”
Video games: Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty: Warzone
Top 3 foods/drinks
1. Steak (Gen Korean BBQ House, Pearlridge)
2. Korean chicken (Zippy’s)
3. Garlic chicken (Loco Moco Drive-In, Waipio)
Top 3 homemade food
1. Mom’s chili
2. Mom’s Hamburger Helper
3. Mom’s beef stew
“My mom (Anu Manutai) does the cooking. My job is just to eat.”
Top 3 music artists/favorite song
1. Blxst – “Got it All”
2. Rod Wave – “Chip on My Shoulder”
3. Cuuhraig – “Family Ties”
Favorite athlete/team: Budda Baker, Arizona Cardinals
“He’s all over the field. He’s a safety. He comes down to hit and gets turnovers. I don’t have a favorite team. When I was little, I always used to bandwagon, so I gave up.”
Funniest teammate: Terahiti Wolfe
“He’s funny. He put on two different sizes of shoes on before practice. The shoes were mixed up.”
Smartest teammate: Kamilo Raass
“He had a 4.2 (GPA). He graduated last year.”
GPA: 3.7
“I don’t believe in staying up just to do homework. I try to do it early. I get it done in class. It’s good to develop good habits when you’re young.”
Favorite teacher: Mr. (Michael) Lau, speech and debate.
“He’s a very laid-back teacher. He knows how to have fun. He knows how to keep kids focused, and it’s not boring.”
Favorite class: Geometry, junior year
“It was easy to me. I got an A.”
Hidden talent: Cutting hair
“I’ve cut a lot of people’s hair. At least 10. I can see the way hair blends. I have barber scissors and I charge $25. I can’t cut girls’ hair.”
Bucket list: “I want to go to Rome and France. The scenery is beautiful. I want to experience different types of food.”
Time machine: “I would go back to 2020. To Las Vegas. I stayed there to play football. That was the best experience I ever had, playing there for six months with my cousin Izley (Manutai). I was in eighth grade. The team was Vegas Strong. I would’ve gone to (Bishop) Gorman, but my mom wouldn’t let me. I’m her first baby, so it’s kind of hard to break away from her.”
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
“Work harder. Live and play like there’s not going to be another day. Have no regrets.”
Shout-outs
“Shout out to my mom and dad, and my brothers and sisters.”
