After challenging year, newly married Nawahine emerges as leader for Boise State

When the First Responder Bowl was suspended during a rainstorm in December, some Boise State football players removed their shoulder pads in the locker room while they waited for a resumption of play — which never came.

Not safety Kekoa Nawahine.

For him, shoulder pads are like a switch that transforms the same guy who performed a choreographed dance with his brothers at his wedding into one of the Mountain West’s best tacklers.

“I can’t take my pads off — it puts me in a different head space,” Nawahine said last week at the Mountain West media preview in Henderson, Nevada. “... When I put my pads on, it’s like go time.”

Nawahine’s presence in Henderson as the defense’s representative was a testament to the respect he garners with teammates and coach Bryan Harsin. Nawahine wasn’t as productive in 2018 as his breakout 2017 season, but he also finished as the team’s leading tackler while changing positions midseason because of the injury to fellow safety DeAndre Pierce.

“This last year, he has taken that next step as a leader and he’s really been trying to bring guys along with him,” Harsin said.

Nawahine was an All-Mountain West second-team pick as a sophomore in 2017, when he started all 14 games, finished second on the team with 108 tackles and grabbed three interceptions.

He was an All-Mountain West honorable mention pick in 2018, with 71 tackles but no interceptions and only two pass breakups.

He moved from the boundary (short) side of the defensive formation to the field (wide) side after five games to replace Pierce.

“There was a lot of growth that I was able to experience from last year, being put in a different position,” Nawahine said. “... Statistically it was not where I would have liked it, but in my eyes you can’t base the success of a season on statistics.”

He has returned to the boundary side this year with Pierce back on the field, giving the Broncos a dynamic pairing at the back of the defense. Pierce was leading the team in tackles when he got injured, and made 83 tackles in 2017.

“It’s no secret that he’s a stud, and he makes a difference when he’s out there,” Nawahine said of Pierce.

Nawahine, a Rocky Mountain High graduate who previously lived in Fruitland, enters the season after a life-changing summer. He married “the girl of my dreams”, McKenna, on June 28 in Star. They met in middle school, when Kekoa and McKenna rode the same bus to Brundage Mountain to go snowboarding. McKenna, who is from Vale, Oregon, later job-shadowed where one of Kekoa’s brothers works, which led to their connection.

They have been together for about two years.

“When you know, you know, so there was no point in putting it off,” Nawahine said. “I was just ready to start that journey with her and get married.”

At the wedding, Nawahine and his brothers performed a choreographed dance. He missed the chance to participate in a similar dance when an older brother got married — Nawahine was serving his church mission in Canada — and he wanted a dance to become a family tradition. The brothers got started practicing late, but like he does on Saturdays, Nawahine showed he can execute a plan in front of a crowd.

“We just had a good time,” he said.

The wedding, Nawahine said, settled the personal side of his life and will keep him focused on football this fall. He also has a year of work left toward his business degree, which he hopes to use to help others after football. Before his mother had a stroke last year, Nawahine, his mother and his brothers would serve meals at homeless shelters, he said.

“I just know I want to live a fulfilling life,” he said. “Do something where I feel like I make a difference in other lives. Football, you can use that as a platform.”

He gets his last chance to play in front of his hometown fans this fall — camp opens Friday — and to show everyone once again how well he can balance the softer side he shows off the field with the ferociousness he exhibits on it.

“Just leaving everything on the field every game is what (people) can expect from me,” Nawahine said, “and what I want to give to my team.”