PHOENIX - Kani Kauahi knew he had to leave. He couldn't take it anymore.
Hawaii was all the soon-to-be high school graduate and talented football player ever knew. After being born in Miles City, Montana – months ahead of when the 12-year Arizona Rattlers' assistant head coach was due and while his mother was returning to the islands from military deployment – the now-bustling archipelago in the middle of the Pacific was where Kauahi spent his entire childhood.
"I wanted to hit the road and get on out there," Kauahi recalled.
Hawaii was much different then than it is now, he explained. Kauahi was born less than a month after the island territory became the USA's 50th state. "You could still leave your doors unlocked," he said.
There was a wild element to the islands then. It wasn't crowded. The nature and "beauty" of the islands was more prominent than anything else. The people were tough.
"There wasn't a lot of crime," Kauahi recalled from his pre-college days. "Any type of grievances that were amongst the people were handled by the people. We were brought up hard."
Still, Kauahi wanted to get away. When he made a trip to visit what Arizona State's football program had to offer him in the late 1970s, he got exactly what he wanted: a way out of Hawaii but to a culture that was similar.
"I just fell in love with the place," he said. "You're coming from Hawaii, which was paradise, supposedly, and it is, but then you come to the desert and just I loved the Western flavor of [ASU], the cowboy mystique and Tempe, [which] was not what it was now. It was dirt roads and saloons. I fit right into it."
It helped, in addition to Kauahi's longing to leave, that the University of Hawaii at the time possessed what Kauahi described as a "poor" recruiting strategy.
But while Kauahi found a calling in the Valley of the Sun that brought him back twice more, and learned life lessons with the Sun Devils he instills in Rattlers today, his time at ASU was short.
When Kauahi committed to the Sun Devils, he did so to head coach Frank Kush, who, while arguably the most legendary coach in ASU history, was a demanding figure who ultimately let his demeanor become his demise.
Despite Kush's tendencies, Kauahi credits Kush with giving him the mindset to be able to play in the NFL for 11 years.
"I left [ASU] when Frank Kush was fired," he said. "...The mentality he instilled in the players really helped me in the pro ranks."
Kauahi went back home to Hawaii to finish school and his collegiate playing days after Kush's departure, which was something he initiated himself.
"The year before [I went to ASU], Dick Tomey had taken over," Kauahi said, indicating the University of Hawaii's culture had changed. "...But when I left [ASU], I contacted Coach Tomey and he offered me a scholarship to finish up there."
While his stay with the Sun Devils was shorter than he anticipated, Kauahi knew Arizona was a place he'd like to be in the future. He got a shot with the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL after playing for Tomey and the Rainbow Warriors and played five years in the Pacific Northwest, but when Kauahi was able to have options with his football career in 1989, he chose the then-Phoenix Cardinals, who were just about to begin their second season in Arizona.
It was purposeful.
"Once free agency opened in the NFL, I wanted to get back to Arizona," Kauahi said.
The most impressive part of Kauahi may not be where the longest-tenured Rattlers coach grew up, or even the fact that he started fewer NFL games (seven) than seasons he played. It might just be what all he did – and is still doing – afterward.
Over the course of the next 13 years, Kauahi transitioned to coaching but did so in a chaotic and borderline mind-boggling way. Kauahi spent time at almost every level and in different types of the game, which included JUCO in the U.S. at Mesa Community College, the Cardinals, the San Francisco Demons of the old XFL, and three teams within the CFL.
Kauahi then began with the Rattlers in 2007, one year before Head Coach and Team President Kevin Guy was brought on. Kauahi's presence on the squad before Guy seems improbable given the duo's close relationship and Guy's successful tenure, but it's not something Kauahi is able to tease Guy about.
"We were terrible," Kauahi said of the year before Guy was hired. "He was a savior."
While Kauahi's wide-ranging and diverse experience would seem to be a major asset to his coaching of the Rattlers, he believes no stop in his career has been more influential than his time in the indoor game with Arizona.
"I mean it sincerely that this organization is where I've grown the most as a coach," he said.
That doesn't mean his other stops haven't been meaningful, Kauahi explained. Things just came together with the Rattlers, and Kauahi credits the basics for that.
"Every other experience that I have had was good because of the style of football and the type of athlete that you're coaching," Kauahi said. "But what it comes down to is his fundamentals. No matter what – JUCO, high school, Canada, XFL, Rattlers – it's all about fundamentals."
It's also part of what Kauahi believes has successfully brought him and Guy together, leading to four world championships.
"We work here," Kauahi said of the Rattlers. "Our coaching staff works. I don't know how much other staffs do, but they don't outwork us. There's not one group that will outwork this one."
Yet, Kauahi and Guy are an unlikely bond. In numerous regards, the two couldn't be more different.
While Kauahi has played in and coached multiple levels and types of football, Guy's only experience outside the arena/indoor game was his time in college at West Alabama. Additionally, while Kauahi was born across the ocean in Hawaii, Guy was born and raised in the South.
The contrast is obvious, according to Kauahi. "His personality, my personality, are… opposite," he said.
But it works – and the Rattlers' four championships with the two at the helm prove that well enough.
"Our goals and our objectives are in sync," Kauahi said. "So you get this wide range of learning, coaching and experience.
"Kevin with all of his football experience, [and] me with all of my football experience, that is equal. Our upbringing, the cloth between us is the same. The melding of those two personalities and upbringing has been what has helped us to be successful."
Kauahi has been with the Rattlers and in Arizona longer than any other stop in his life outside of Hawaii. In the IFL, that can be unheard of.
For Kauahi, not only does Arizona and the Rattlers feel like home from a physical standpoint, but it does in an emotional way, too.
"It's about establishing a culture of how we're going to conduct ourselves," he said. "It's a strong code of ethics, character, honor, all of that. And as we've grown, we've tried to fit people into that type of culture. That's the key to it."
He credits Guy and Rattlers owner Ron Shurts as the reason for his long tenure with the team. To Kauahi, they've stuck to their word.
"The first thing [Shurts] said, and I'll never forget it in our first organizational meeting, was [this]: 'From this day forward you will never be embarrassed about being a Rattler again.'
"So he says that, and follows through by providing the resources that we needed to be successful. And then you go to KG."
Simultaneously, Kauahi has been able to apply his own strategies and mindsets to the Rattlers, most of which come from his days as a NFL player who played more years than games.
"I referred to myself as a 'bubble player,' and that was everyday," he said. "Day in and day out, you were on the brink of being cut. They were always looking to replace me. I embraced that and just didn't take anything for granted. Each day when I went to work, it was full tilt. I was going full speed and it worked out pretty good. It took 11 years to get rid of me."
When it comes to Rattlers practices in the middle of sweltering summers, Kauahi hopes he sees the same from the players on the field.
"'You have to fight for everything that you want to get,'" he says to those on the field. "'You cannot take a play or situation in-game for granted. You have to put everything on the line for it if you want to get it. And that doesn't guarantee it. It'll increase your chances of maybe getting it, but if you're going to do this, then do it with all of your heart.'
"'Otherwise, don't do it at all.'"
