By Russell Omo

[email protected]

For the varsity football team, the game against Waianae ended on a bittersweet note, taking the game 44-24, but with Running Back and Slot Back Sophomore Vavae Malepeai injured with a collapsed lung. Despite the adversity, the top-scoring player has been playing recently and will be playing in time for homecoming.

“I just couldn’t breathe you know. At first I thought I just got the wind knocked out of me, but we went on to the ER that night,” explained Malepeai, “It came out worse, unfortunately.”

Malepeai suffered the injury in the fourth quarter, as the team ran the clock to finish the game. “It was an unfortunate injury. Waianae was short a player (and let that injured player into the fourth quarter). We had already started the play so that injured player hit him from the side, so he was unblocked. The referee should have stopped the play, but it is what it is,” recalled Head Coach Roderick York.

As a result of the injury, Malepeai was not able to play with the team against Waipahu on Sept. 6. “It felt bad,” expressed Malepeai, “I always want to get on the field with my brothers and play but with the injury, you just got to rest up, heal up and wait for your time to come around again.” Despite being down a player, the Trojans ended up winning 39-12.

York recently allowed Malepeai back into training. “(Malepeai) is still a little sore and he’s missed two weeks (of practice). So it all depends on how he runs the ball. He’s already practiced and we let him run the ball a lot during practice,” said York.

Malepeai will continue to train to reacclimate himself with football in preparation for the homecoming game on Sept. 27 against Leilehua.