Anuenue teammates Chasen "Hemakana" Kauahipaula (left) and Dennis "Kaleo" Gaspar (right) pose with former Na Koa coach Kealoha Wengler, who is assisting with this week's Life Champion Senior Bowl. Courtesy Keala Pule

Purchase image 1 of 1

HILO, Hawaii — It's not often that opportunity comes knocking. That's a lesson that one trio of football players in town for Saturday's Life Champion Senior Bowl learned the hard way.

For Anuenue teammates Chasen "Hemakana" Kauahipaula and Dennis "Kaleo" Gaspar, as well as St. Anthony's Sam Wyner, this weekend's game — the second annual event — represents much more than just another game; it's the chance of a lifetime.

Kauahipaula, Gaspar and Wyner all saw their senior seasons on the gridiron cut short this fall due to circumstances out of their control. Anuenue, a member of the Oahu Interscholastic Association, was forced to forfeit its entire regular season — a total of eight games — citing safety concerns.

That meant Kauahipaula and Gaspar — two of the four seniors on the Na Koa roster this year — never suited up for a game after a season-opening 62-0 loss to Saint Francis back on Aug. 7.

"The whole season we practiced like there was a game coming up; We didn't know we were going to forfeit the season," said Gaspar, a 6-foot-6, 297-pound offensive tackle. "We kept trying, we kept going, we kept pushing to get the next game no matter how many games we had to forfeit, but it hurt not being able to play my senior year."

Week after week the forfeits kept coming for Anuenue until coach Kelii Pio Adams and the school administration ultimately decided to end the season on Sept. 18 — with three games still remaining on its schedule.

"From your freshman, sophomore year you see all the seniors having their senior walk and their senior game and that's something I was looking forward to," said Kauahipaula, a 5-foot-8, 273-pound offensive lineman. "It was supposed to be my year and my time to shine, but it is what it is pretty much."

Kauahipaula lamented the fact that he would never get the chance to don the Na Koa jersey again, but saw the big picture in the decision with eight freshmen and eight sophomores on the team.

"As a team captain you've just got to make those kinds of calls just to save your freshmen," Kauahipaula said. "We had like four returning seniors and one junior — so just five returnees pretty much. With just us five and all these freshmen and sophomores … that's our brothers, so we don't want to just throw them out there to the wolves. We want to keep them safe so we can start this little base and with this base then we can move on to bigger things and open up more opportunities for our school."

Gaspar said he grew frustrated with not being able to play in any games, but tried to remind himself to keep his eyes on the prize.

"It kind of felt like it was pointless already," Gaspar said. "I kind of gave up already at one point, but I just thought, ‘If I don't do it, who will then?' No one is going to do it for me, so I just had to go get it."

Throughout their season-long ordeal, Kauahipaula said he and Gaspar trusted that everything was happening for a reason.

"We just prayed to God and God just opened this opportunity for us. We have to just take advantage of this," Kauahipaula said of the Life Champion Senior Bowl, which will he held at Kamehameha-Hawaii's Paiea Stadium.

The players — 104 of them in all — arrived on Tuesday and have been practicing twice a day leading up to Saturday's game. Hawaii Football Club Executive Director Robert "Keala" Pule, whose organization is putting on the event, said nearly 20 college coaches have been in attendance at practices.

"When the decision was made (to forfeit the rest of the season), our coach sat us five (returnees) down and gave us the talk," Kauahipaula said. "He didn't just want us to fall and with this breaking point he just didn't want us to fall and to just keep our heads up and just know that God will open doors for us. It's a blessing for me and Kaleo to just come here to show our ability and show these college coaches what we have."

It's an opportunity not lost on Gaspar, who is reunited with Kauahipaula on the Black squad this week.

"Definitely, because I've got one last chance to go out there and give it the best I've got and show what I've got," Gaspar said.

Wyner found himself in a similar situation this year on the Valley Isle when St. Anthony — which competes in 8-man football in the Maui Interscholastic League — folded its team just weeks before the season was set to begin.

"I was pretty disappointed for the first couple of weeks of school," said Wyner, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound cornerback on the White team.

However, thanks to a collaborative effort from some administrators, Wyner's senior season wasn't a complete loss.

"My athletic director at my school, Brian Mellar, and the AD at Kihei Charter, James Sparke, worked it out where I was able to practice with them every day," Wyner said. "I didn't get to play in any games, but I got to stay on the sidelines. That was great because my AD worked around the clock to make that happen, working with the MIL and all the officials to make sure everything was all legal so that I could go and do this."

Wyner said he has relished the chance to line up next to and across of many prominent players who he watched from afar over the years.

"Playing against the big-name schools that I never got to play against before is really good — especially all the Kahuku guys, the Radford guys," Wyner said. "The opportunity to play against guys from a higher level that I never would have been on the same field with is really special. Hopefully I can display my talent and show that I'm just as good, if not better than these guys."

The Black team won last year's inaugural game by a score of 35-28 in overtime. Pule said that of the 87 players that participated in that game, 50 are currently in college, with most of them playing football.

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. The game will be streamed live exclusively on ScoringLive.com with Felipe Ojastro (play-by-play) and Shawn Sueoka (color commentary) on the call.

Also, the ScoringLive All-Hawaii Teams for both Division I and II will be released during halftime of the game.