Making A Name

Imagine growing up wanting to change your last name.

What has to happen to make someone so badly want to change the name that appeared on the back of his football jersey in a strong freshman season at the University of Washington?

Three years ago, the No. 52 jersey in purple and white read "Jamora," as in Hau‘oli Jamora, the 2009 Star-Bulletin defensive player of the year out of Kahuku.

Today, the same 6-foot-3 250-pounder is still putting on that same jersey.

But in the place of No. 52 and the name "Jamora" is No. 8 and the name "Kikaha," for Hau‘oli Kikaha.

The reasons run far and deep.

"It’s just a little bit complicated — really complicated, actually — and hard to tell people," Kikaha said. "The simplest way to say it is that it comes from my mother’s side of the family."

There’s a lot more to it, though. Kikaha is actually the name of his great-grandfather on his mother’s side.

For most of his life, Kikaha knew he wanted to change his name as soon as he could — when he turned 21.

To what, however, became the tough part.

"They think (in Washington) it was to honor (my mom), and it is kind of, but not really," Kikaha said. "It was mostly my pops didn’t take care of me, like his dad to him, and his dad had changed his last name. So the name (my dad) was carrying on was irrelevant to him and that’s the same for me.

"This name, Jamora, I’ve had is empty for me and you know, I needed something to fill that."

Kikaha was raised predominantly by his mother on the North Shore in Hauula, bouncing from place to place. He even spent time in California for a few years before returning to Oahu so he could play at Kahuku.

During his last two years of high school, he lived with his mother’s stepmom.

None of that took away from his performance on the football field, where he became one of the most dominant defensive lineman to come out of Hawaii in recent history.

He had five sacks in the OIA semifinals as a senior and did it again the following week, pulling Leilehua’s Andrew Manley to the Aloha Stadium turf five more times in a 24-20 win.

The one-time BYU commit visited Boise State and Arizona before choosing to go to Washington after visiting the Seattle campus.

Three games into his freshman season he recorded eight tackles in a 35-point loss to Nebraska. In the rematch in the Holiday Bowl, he had three tackles for loss and a sack in a 19-7 win over the Cornhuskers, solidifying his starting role at defensive end.

Well on his way to a prolific Huskies career, he made it just one quarter into the Pac-12 opener against Cal the following year when he tore his ACL.

It’d be 707 days later before he would return to the field, starting in UW’s 38-6 thumping of Boise State in the season opener this year in brand-new Husky Stadium, which underwent a $280 million remodeling.

"I may not have chosen the best (recovery) for my knee the first time around," said Kikaha, who reinjured his knee in camp last fall and sat out all of 2012. "I wasn’t too early (coming back) from it, who knows, but we made it simpler this time around.

"I feel like I’m better than I was before, but I’m not 100 percent of what I’m capable of."

Since returning, Kikaha plays more inside on the defensive line in UW’s new 3-4 scheme designed to counter the spread offenses that are starting to take over the Pac-12.

At 3-0, the Huskies are ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 heading into their Pac-12 opener this weekend against Arizona.

UW plays at No. 5 Stanford and at home against No. 2 Oregon the following two weeks, which will go a long way in deciding the Pac-12 North Division champion.

That is, as long as they beat the Wildcats.

"Arizona is the biggest game of the year, because it’s this week," Kikaha said. "Arizona’s offense is a challenge, but this is why our offense runs up-tempo now.

"It’s so that we can play against the Arizonas and the Oregons and whoever else plays that way, so yeah, I mean, this is definitely a huge game for us, just as big as all the others after it."