Appearing in Furballer Volume #6 Issue #46

Maybe I'm just an old coyote, but it's hard to find heroes any more.

In the age of Tweeter, the youngest have a new road to popularity. Distinction comes from public cursing, from boasts of generosity and open letters insisting the faults of trades. It's no longer enough to let your game do the talking. Everyone has to make sure the world sees how angry and vicious they are, how in love and caring, where on the spectrum they lie with such radiance, it's hard to see the other colors. It's almost as if the box score has become trite.

That's why it was so refreshing when I received this year's invitation to H2O, Howlers center Nohea Holokai's annual exhibition match for young marine talent. There was no tweet announcing it, no big online posting, no huge poster promising a fantastic getaway to gorgeous Maui with an excuse to drop sexual innuendo on the listening fans regardless of their age. Just a neatly folded letter, hand-signed by the big orca, politely asking if I would be interested in attending. I've never said no.

Nohea Holokai is one of those superstars that have vanished behind the digital pollution cloud. He doesn't have a Tweeter account. I'm not even sure he carries a cell phone. I've rarely interviewed him. Every time I've sat down with the Howlers, it's been the loudmouthed Shane Rufus (Red Wolf, G), the talkative Rocky Caracal (Lynx, G) or the indecipherable Bobby-Rae Brine (Stingray, G) that's been pushed into the interview chair. The only times I've seen Holokai is when he's leaving the gym, or just arriving at the stadium. It's not that he's rude. Far from it. Every time he can't talk because there's a team meeting, or he needs to get to warm ups, or he has to set a good example for the rooks.

It's a small miracle Nohea got to play at all. These days it feels like ballers from the ocean are common, so common, you've got them arriving in pairs like Ahti Nereus (White Sturgeon, C) and Wesley Lachs (Sockeye Salmon, F). And that's on a team that also drafted Phinneas Ishmael Wilson (Great White Shark, C/F) and shares their division with Aesop Tecumseh (Northern Pike, G) and Keitaro Kurosaki (Black Tip Reef Shark, F). You look at the FBA today, and it seems marine players have been there forever. I often wonder how many realize they have Holokai to thank for that.

It's ancient history now, but for those who were there, like myself, the 1999 Draft will never be forgotten. Healey Davis (Cheetah, G) had just shattered nearly every FBA record on his way to leading the Huntsville Mayors to a 4th consecutive Championship. He was at the peak of his game, utterly unstoppable, his Mayors a juggernaut the league had no answer for. By that point, everyone in the FBA just picked the flashiest players, the most marketable athletes, the ones who could squeeze the most money out of their fans on the way to getting bullied again by a domineering City Hall.

But one team saw things differently. The Howlers had proudly held the banner for the most Championships of any FBA team in history since their last victory in 1989. In 1999, the Mayors had picked up their 7th title-- just 2 titles away from tying up the Howlers 9. And with Davis all but assured another championship in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.... Montana became desperate.

Holokai had only signed up for the 1999 Draft the day of the deadline, squeaking under the wire. He probably learned what the FBA was that same day. Holokai was born in the oceanic nations, places land mammals like me know very little about, only that they don't have basketball down there. Of course, they have their own sports, and I did learn from Holokai that he had played for those teams growing up. But the only reason he was in that draft was the goading from a local college coach who had met young Holokai in his job at the Maui docks, transporting goods between the sea and the land. That coach had a passion for basketball and an eye for marine talent. He later won a championship himself when he coached the Stanislaus Thrust to their single title.

At best, Holokai was going to be a late second round pick. At the time, no FBA team had ever signed a marine player, and the reasons were extensive. They couldn't move on land like us, they didn't have any grace in the air, they didn't have the instinct to how gravity worked on the ball. There were many reasons not to sign a marine player, and any coach could rattle them off in front of the cameras.

Which is why it was so stunning when the Howlers picked Holokai with their first pick. The chatter was immediate. Everyone knew Montana was crazy, and this had to have been a desperation move. Holokai was totally unknown, hadn't been at the combines, had barely been checked out, and here the Howlers had just grabbed the tallest body and the biggest hands the 1999 draft class had to offer. It was an insane gamble that broke all the rules. And if you ask the guys in charge back then, they'd confirm it.

But their madness was rewarded. Holokai didn't know the game coming in, it was painfully obvious, and some of his earliest game tapes are embarrassing, showing a big, oversized brute of an orca slapping at goaltends, tripping on his own feet, knocking passes with his dorsal fin. He spent the first two years of his career with barely any floor time. But what was going on off the court was a focus and determination that any land mammal would envy. Howlers trainers were telling me how Holokai was always the first to practice and the last to leave. How he took copious notes during meetings and watched game tape endlessly, even during the off-season. No parties, no drinking, no shortcuts.

Part of that was no doubt his difficulty living on dry land. But most of it was a rare natural devotion. In an interview I had with him, he told me the last thing his father had said before he put his name into the FBA draft pool. Fully aware his son was potentially entering a career that would take him far from the world of the sea, where he would be seen as strange, he assured his son he supported him in his decision, but only if he would give everything he had to being the best he could be. I suspect Holokai's father is very proud.

After his rookie contract, Holokai made bench. The next season, he made starter. Since then, he has started in every season he's played in the FBA, every one in a Montana jersey. As well as being loyal to the game, he's been one of the most loyal to his team, never shopping the market, never looking for a trade. Even when the Edmonton Totems a couple years back offered him a huge sum of money, more than Montana had ever paid him, he refused and kept his feet on Montana hardwood. That's a kind of loyalty hard to find these days.

And durability. Now as we march toward the 2015 Playoffs, Holokai is one of the oldest vets in the game. Amazing for a guy who few thought would last two seasons. It's no secret that he's slowing down, no longer as fast or as crisp in his game as he had been, but that big body of his is still bull strong, those hands rivaling Paul Teronura's (Otter, C). Still, it's clear that Holokai knows he doesn't have much longer in the league, and he's already taken steps to plan his eventual retirement. He actually started taking those steps a long time ago.

In 2005, Holokai was a starting center, a strong roleplayer for a powerful Howlers team. During an interview with my now retired, loud-mouthed, brash-talking counterpart Eddie Scarto (Grizzly Bear), Holokai was brutally reminded of one thing. In all his years in the FBA, he was the only marine player in the league. Despite his laughter during that television interview, you can see how hard it hit Holokai to be told that. Reportedly after the interview, he left the studio without a word to anyone. He then took a spontaneous vacation back to Maui. And then he started something new.

The first H2O exhibition match was held in 2006. Holokai had hired a team of organizers to arrange the event, reaching out across the globe to find marine basketball players and invite them to an all-expenses paid trip to Maui to play one game-- one that would be seen by FBA recruiters. I was there for that first match, and it was sadly as pathetic as was expected. So few players arrived, they had to take breaks during the game to let them rest. Only two scouts showed up, one of them leaving at halftime. But Holokai had no intention of quitting.

2007 was a little bigger, and by 2008, enough players were invited to fill both teams. More people came to watch, enough that by 2009, the event was moved out of its high school stadium and into a university one that could seat a crowd. The games were not fantastic. It was clear that the staff had to get whatever talent they could find just to fill the rosters, and there were plenty of mariners who barely deserved to be out there. But the way Holokai treated every game, you'd think he was watching superstars. He would always be on the floor, clapping for the players on both sides, shouting out his support, bumping fists during time outs. And he did it as a supporter. Marine coaches would handle the teams, and Holokai, instead of wearing a suit and tie, instead of trying to be seen and show off, would wear a simple sweater and running pants, as if he could jump in at any time. No doubt the kids loved that, as for many of them, the chance to meet Nohea Holokai, now a legend among marine sports fans, was the real treat. It's a treat for land based reporters like me, too.

Now, in 2015, H2O is an institution. It doesn't get the coverage or the marketing of the All-Star Games, of course, but there is a sincerity to them that's unmatched. The stadium is now packed full, just filled with Maui sports fans and marine fans alike. There are now so many young basketball players under the sea, they have to be choosy with their invitations. Only the best of the best play, and it shows, as these kids from all over the oceans, the seas, and lakes and bays play nothing short of outstanding basketball, as good as the best college games on land. And now every team sends a scout, scribbling notes on these gifted players, ratcheting up their value in the draft.

And we've all seen it. Many of those excellent marine players we see today first got seen at H2O. Keitaro Kurosaki (Black Tip Reef Shark, F) and Bobby-Rae Brine (Stringray, G) were both invited and seen by FBA scouts. Aesop Tecumseh (Northern Pike, G) not only got seen, but was drafted by the Montana Howlers, playing right alongside Holokai in his rookie year. Some have suspected that it was the signing of Tecumseh that convinced Holokai to refuse the fat contract offer from Edmonton, but those who know the orca will tell you, he wouldn't have left his team anyway.

And this year, I got to see more fantastic marine players, names I'll undoubtedly see this off-season. Another orca named Sam Canuteson, a horseshoe crab named Ella Blessing, a betta-fish named "Pim" Tansiri, even a Peacock Mantis Shrimp whose name I forgot to write down. (My bad.) All of them playing to a sold out crowd, filled with marine sports fans excited at seeing their kind play and possibly join the most elite basketball league in the world.

It's very possible many of these kids will never know how difficult it would have been for them just a few years ago. But Nohea will never forget. During FBA games, Holokai is a quiet, humble giant, playing his game hard, supporting his team from the bench, never looking for the cameras or for media attention. But at H2O, he's a hero, one who has used the unique opportunity the world gave him to give a special opportunity to others. He's still humble about it. When I spoke with him at the event, he was insistent, he was not the hero. The kids were, the young players that arrive every year from around the world, make this big trip and play in front of all these people to demonstration the unique contribution marine players have made to the sport. And continue to make.

It's almost like he doesn't even realize what a champion he is to those kids. An example of that came crystal clear in the third quarter when Gris Ful (Pacific Lamprey, G), an unfortunately difficult to look at guard from off the coast of Oregon, made a play that got the crowd on their feet. With the shot clock winding down and the opposing defense swarming, Ful found himself in the triple threat without an outlet pass. In a fearless decision, the young lamprey shook his man with a hesitation jab step, spun his way into the high post, went at a pair of defenders deep in the paint and jumped toward the hoop despite the traffic. His double clutch under the fin of a defender came off his fingers just before the buzzer, the whistle, and the swish. When the refs called a time out to check the play, Ful went to the sideline next to Holokai, who was staring up at the Jumbotron to watch the replay.

When it was clear the bucket was good, Holokai held out his fist to the young athlete. For a moment-- one I was thankfully able to capture (See, Susan, I can do it, too!)-- Ful looked like he had no idea what to do, like it was unthinkable to bump fists with his hero.

But if you ask Holokai, at that moment, he had found one.

-- T. Matt Latrans

---

Drawn by the wonderful  d.chestnut!

And I can't believe I forgot all of these credits!! This is what happens when you write a story past midnight on a work night...

Gris Ful created by  kenoshi
Aesop Tecumseh and Bobby-Rae Brine created by  pac
Peacock Mantis Shrimp character created by  FFRedXIII
Keitaro Kurosaki created by  Gabriel-Fawkes
Sam Canuteson and Ella Blessing created by  out-of-the-boks
Ahti Nereus created by  bossbull
Wesley Lachs created by  paulshep
Phinneas Ishmael Wilson created by  chainscoyote

All characters are owned by their creators.

The  furrybasketball is managed by  steviemaxwell