My name is Kanoa Na'auponokamea'emaikalani Ferreira. My friends and family call me Noa for short. I am of Hawaiian ancestry and born and raised on the island of 'Oahu in the state of Hawai'i. I currently reside in Kapolei, Hawai'i. I am the eldest of 4 children in my family. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. I began playing the sport of football at the young age of 5. First starting out with flag football and moving over to tackle football at the age of 6. I continued to play flag football year around up until the age of 13. I strongly believe that flag football helped me to develop and harness my skills as I played more and more. I was able to incorporate all the skills that I learned onto the tackle football field yearly. Football has taken me on many journeys around the Mainland USA. I have competed in 6 National NFL Flag Football tournaments in Las Vegas, Nevada (winning the 12U division in 2016). These tournaments have helped me grow as a player and allowed me to go up against National competition on a yearly basis. In addition to traveling for flag football, I have also traveled for multiple National Tournaments for Tackle football as well. I have competed in National Tournaments in San Diego (2016, 2017) and Los Angeles (2018). My team advanced to the Championship game in 2017 and 2018. I also had the opportunity to represent Hawai'i in the inaugural Pro Football Hall of Fame Youth National Championships in 2018. My team won the Western Regional in California and advanced to the National tournament in Canton, Ohio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This was a once in a life time opportunity and I am very appreciative that I was able to experience it. We battled against the top teams in the Nation over 3 days even playing in the snow on the first day of play. We advanced to the Championship game against Georgia Elite which was played in the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame Stadium. Our game was also televised Nationally on CBS Sports Network which was an awesome experience. We battled all game long, however we fell short and placed as runner up. This is a big accomplishment for a team coming from a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We definitely put Hawai'i football on the map. I then moved on to Middle School football (7/8 grade). I was selected as an All-Star in 2019 (7th grade) and 2020 (8th grade). In both years, The Hawai'i All-Stars played in the Paradise Football Classic against the 14U Vegas Strong team winning both years. The 2020 Vegas Strong team came into the game as the #2 Nationally ranked team and we were able to beat them on our home field. I also had the opportunity to play against the #1 ranked 14U team in the Nation (OG Ducks) in my 8th grade season. Playing against these top ranked teams has allowed me to grow exponentially as a player. Being able to compete against top notch competition has helped me become the player I am today. I have also competed in National 7 on 7 tournaments from 2018-2020. Most recently, I competed in the 2020 Pylon in Las Vegas, Nevada. I competed with the VARSITY team (Beast808) as an 8th grader. This is a huge accomplishment as it is very rare to have an 8th grader competing at the VARSITY level. This also has helped me to grow as a player. Being able to go out and compete against the top High School players in the Nation really challenged me to up my game. I thank my Parents, family, and Coaches for helping me become who I am today. Without their help and guidance, I would not be in the position I am today. I am definitely blessed.