‘One Team’ pays tribute to legendary Father Bray

Before committing to a film about the impact of the late Father Kenneth Bray, the ‘Iolani Raiders Booster Club asked itself one question:

"We wanted to know whether this piece, shown 100 years from now, would still be relevant," said Lester Leu, club president.

Six years and $128,000 later the finished product, "One Team," is a poignant testimonial to the precepts of the legendary ‘Iolani football coach whose "we, not me" message figures to continue to transcend generations.

It brings to cinematic life the remarkable story behind the building, murals and aged artifacts surrounding the iconic Bray on the ‘Iolani campus.

Bray, who died in 1953 after 20 years at the school, is as inspirational in his digital recreation as he was said to have been in his black-and-white heydays.

"It (the portrayal) was very touching," said Ben Almadova, a class of 1951 football, baseball and basketball player for Bray who was visibly moved at a preview.

The 45-minute production of filmmakers Tom Coffman, Eric Nemoto and Deron Kamisato debuts to two already-assured full houses Sunday at the Honolulu Academy of Arts’ Doris Duke Theater and will be submitted to the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Theirs was an ambitious undertaking, telling the story behind the "One Team" concept and Bray, the Episcopal priest from Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England, who introduced it here 80 years ago.

It shows Bray, often seen in his trademark pinched hat, overcoat and Sherlock Holmes-like pipe, as a larger-than-life figure to his players and the school with which he became synonymous. But it also reveals a man whose passion is apparent in letters he wrote exhorting his players and someone who was not above delivering a jaw-rattling open-handed slap when he deemed it necessary.

The booster club had originally envisioned something along the lines of a student-produced video. But correctly sensing they were battling time in hoping to record for posterity the words of the diminishing ranks of the alums who played for Bray, they ultimately took on the task independent of the school. They raised many of the necessary funds through grass roots appeals and a garage sale.

For the award-winning Coffman, whose previous credits include "Nation Within, The Annexation of Hawaii" and "Arirang: The Korean American Journey," this was an initial venture into sports. "What I liked about it was that it was not only sports history but, I sensed, a social history," Coffman said. "The further I went into the interviews the more that I felt it was both sports history and social history, the evolution of Hawaii as a more cohesive community. Bray was one of those rare people who came here and struck a nerve in the young guys he had a chance to work with and that’s what I liked about him."

Indeed, Bray, teacher of Greek and Latin, brought together players from disparate backgrounds, ethnicities and communities at what was then a small, 200-enrollment school in Nuuanu that had achieved little athletic distinction. He instilled discipline, painstaking attention to detail and an all-for-one concept and won championships.

Throughout, Bray preached, "I have no confidence in one star player bringing home the bacon. Nope. It takes the whole gang to do that. You are not individuals greedy for individual honor but members of a team eager for team achievement."

For years he refused to take part in the selection of all-star teams. Players presented with lei or postgame snacks didn’t get to keep them unless everybody on the team got one, a practice that continues.

Under Bray, the Raiders went on to join and win ILH football championships in 1939, ’40 and ’50. But the larger, enduring testament to his legacy has been that his "One Team" message not only thrives at ‘Iolani, and where its graduates have gone on to coach, but echoes at other schools, Farrington and Kaimuki among them.

"All these generations later what he preached and what he believed in … it works today," Wendell Look, coach of ‘Iolani’s five-time state Division II champions, said in the film.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.