Kikaha is beast on the field, a beauty in the classroom

Holly Barker saw most of the 13 sacks that defensive lineman Hau’oli Kikaha registered for the University of Washington last season.

She witnessed his 11 tackles in the Apple Cup game and his defensive MVP performance in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

But to see Kikaha at his best, she’ll tell you, it helps to step away from the stadiums and view his academic pursuits at Denny Hall, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture or Tahiti.

As good as the 6-foot, 3-inch, 246-pound Kahuku High graduate has been on the field — and he was second-team All-Pac-12 in 2013 — he has been even better in the classroom, where he was an academic first-team All-Pac-12 pick.

"I know he is an outstanding football player, but I think he might be the best student I’ve ever worked with," said Barker, who teaches sociocultural anthropology at UW and is a curator at Burke Museum.

Kikaha returns home for Saturday’s game, leading the 25th-ranked Huskies against Hawaii, and, when he isn’t breaking up passes, he is busting stereotypes.

"He challenges people’s ideas about football players," Barker said. "He’s such a leader in the classroom, sits up front, fully engages, comes up with ideas nobody has thought of, is an absolute joy to work with and challenges his professors, diplomatically."

Barker said, "I know UW recruited him for his football abilities, but I recruit him for as many of my classes as I can because, through his intellect and leadership, he stimulates the whole class."

Kikaha’s 3.53 grade-point average and work in anthropology have earned him two study abroad trips, 10 days in Tahiti last year and two months in French Polynesia earlier this year.

The experiences, he said, "were eye-opening," expanding his interest in Pacific Island peoples and, perhaps, in a teaching career after his football days are over.

"I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to study abroad. Not many football players get to do that while they are playing," Kikaha said. 

It was a sign of the esteem the fifth-year senior is held in that head coach Chris Petersen, just weeks into the job at UW, agreed to let him miss two months of the Huskies’ conditioning program to study and do research with the University of French Polynesia.

"He’s a tremendous student, he’s a good person and, he’s obviously an excellent, excellent player," Petersen said.

 On his return, Kikaha spoke at the school’s undergraduate research symposium and was a finalist for the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars Awards that annually goes to a top minority scholar athlete nationally. 

Kikaha’s work focused on the medical and social impact of colonization on indigenous Pacific Island populations. "It is a field that I’m passionate about," Kikaha said. "I bounced around trying to find my way at first, but I found some classes and professors that sparked my interest and allowed me to explore my academic options." 

He immersed himself in it while working his way back from two reconstructive knee surgeries with much the same approach he takes on quarterbacks, full speed ahead. 

Saturday, Barker will sit in front of a TV in Seattle and, for the umpteenth time, she will marvel about what she has come to call "the amazing world of Hau’oli."

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