By MATT GERHART
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
As you might expect from his last name, Ethan Awa started playing basketball “as soon as I could.”
But it was another sport that eventually hooked him, because even as he was learning to dribble, he was also riding on his family ranch.
“I just really started to love rodeo,” he said.
When he struck up a childhood friendship with Chase Kahiau Onaka, a partnership was born.
Awa would go on to his make his mark at Konawaena, but it had nothing to do with the hardwood.
With three clean runs in team roping, Awa and Onaka took fifth at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyo.