How might a person transform growing up in Hawaii only to move to California, Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina as a football player then as collegiate football coach before returning to you and your wife’s high school alma mater as head coach? This is the story of Abu and Marleina Maafala.

Abu Maafala is the Head Football Coach at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama, his alma mater. An All-State defensive lineman, he played football at University of Hawai‘i and Cal, Berkeley where he graduated in American studies. Coach Maafala’s career took his family to the University of Louisville in Kentucky, West Liberty University in West Virginia where he was also on Exercise Physiology faculty. He is married to Marleina, a graduate of Kamehameha Kapālama and the University of Notre Dame. They have a son, Levi and daughter, Lanei.

1 Corinthians 4:2, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”