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Lahainaluna footballers going to the Super Bowl

Lahainaluna High School football players

Lahaina, MAUI (AP) — Lahainaluna football players have been asked to serve as honorary coin toss captains at the Super Bowl

Four Lahainaluna High School sports captains will be at Super Bowl LVIII this weekend as guests of the NFL.

The news comes nearly six months after the Aug. 8 fire that claimed at least 100 lives.

The NFL announced Wednesday that Lahainaluna football coaches Dean Rickard (co-head coach), Garret Tihada (associate head coach) and Bobby Watson (former head coach) will join players Morgan “Bula” Montgomery, Teva Loft, Kaulana Tihada and Kuola Watson as honorary coin toss captains before the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

The four were called to the principal’s office last month. The seniors thought they were in trouble.

Instead, they found themselves on a Zoom call with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and Hawaii’s own Marcus Mariota. He told the teens that they would be going to the Super Bowl.

The NFL said Mariota will narrate a special introductory video before members of the football team walk onto the field for the coin toss.

“It’s going to be crazy, I don’t have the words to describe it,” Loft said. He’s been living with his father after his mother’s house burned down in the fire.

“The Lahainaluna High School football team embodies the power of football to bring people together, even in the most challenging of circumstances,” NFL Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility Anna Isaacson said in a news release.

Through additional support from USA Football and Riddell, the NFL is replacing all football equipment, including helmets, shoulder pads, girdles, jerseys and pants for the Lahainaluna High School and Lahaina Intermediate School football teams.

The NFL will also be providing footballs, mouth pieces, cleats, blocking pads and tackling sleds to the Lahaina Chiefs Pop Warner team.

The NFL Films team recently released a documentary on the Lunas to highlight their journey from the tragedy on Maui to their season-opening game.