Off The Field: Alema Harrington’s Journey Through Sports, Struggle, and Salvation

welcome to the know your ship podcast presented by ehub I’m your
host Frank doce I’m Alma Harrington happy to be the guest this week on know
your ship podcast the episode that you will hear deals with substance abuse
substance use disorder mental health awareness suicidal thoughts and
ideations and the hope is to uh raise the awareness remove the stigma of
mental health issues and if you’re dealing with something like this or you
have somebody that you know that is dealing with mental health issues there
are resources available we encourage you that if you’re having an issue to
dial 988 not 911 but similar 988 is a mental health hotline and you can get
meaningful support and Direction there we encourage you to do it enjoy the
episode have you been on other podcasts yeah really Google me please say
we’re recording please tell me we’re recording yes that’s going to be one of
our Clips that’s one of our Clips right there and Abby I’m GNA give you I
give you immediate rights to use that on your for your Clips yeah okay good
grief okay uh we’ll get started here Abby Orchard we can’t thank Abby enough
for what she does yes for the for this for the know your ship podcast she’s
amazing what did you say no this is the know your ship podcast I know what it
is I’m asking what you just said no your ship Okay and like really enunciate
on that my my title is the chief ship talker yeah what did you just say what
did you just say man this is the best start to aast very appropriate for you
yeah man look I could not be more excited than to have you here with me today
I I’m excited too I’m telling you this this is I told you earlier I’m setting
the bar for this podcast mm I want Joe Rogan to call me and say man that was
a good podcast that’s the bar and that’s that most of that’s going to be on
you wow that’s that’s yeah that’s a little bit of pressure not much you felt
you know pressure you know pressure by the way let me let me do the proper
introductions this man sitting next to me is a legend not only in Utah uh but
a legend on the islands as well and probably Parts Unknown the one the only a
Lima Harrington uh and and I have the pleasure the great pleasure of working
pretty closely with you throughout the high school football season which is
which is amazing yeah I I’d let our our listeners viewers know this that we
do work together doing High School broadcasts and we broadcast two high
school games a week during the high school football season um and every time
that I work with Frank Frank brings food yeah and I’ve told Frank this and
I’ll tell the audience this Frank is the the best girlfriend i’ never had
he’s always he text me he’s like hey what do you want and I just tell him get
get whatever you’re getting I’ll have that but Frank is you’re one of the most
gracious people I know and I appreciate that very much and feel forunate in
my business as a broadcaster to work with some really good people oh
absolutely we do we work there’s a lot of jerks in this industry no question
right and and we do have there is that one guy we work with not we’re not
naming names but there’s that one guy everybody knows him but you know part
part of the reason is I I love to bring food wherever I go if I can I mean
yeah if it’s appropriate because uh you’re a relationship guy yeah I feel
like I have that tendency as well and food brings people together like it’s
easy to just start chatting over a nice pastry or something I think it’s a
cultural thing to some degree and I don’t know if people watching or
listening to this or you know thinking well our culture does that I I maybe
it’s it’s it but is a way that we do come together that’s why that old saying
let’s go break bread together right my gosh that was mind-blowing do you
think that’s where that came from but it is it’s how we connect it’s one of
the ways that we connect no doubt yeah no doubt well well if you don’t know
uh a Lima Harrington was a member of the BYU football team MH he was a great
running back uh who happened to sit behind a really great running back crew
yeah uh at at the time so has a twin brother yep now I need to clarify this
okay did was ta also on the team yes you played together we played together
which is is you know for for anybody that has played the game of football and
has a you know a sibling that um you know obviously we had the opportunity to
do this in high school but very few get to the next level and get to play
together and for my brother brother atal and myself what a a great um
experience that was to be on a division one team one the national
championship our freshman year uh even though neither of us played uh any you
know Downs meaningful Downs um still you know have a national championship
ring but had that experience together and then my brother after our freshman
year went on the mission I did not he went on the mission that was our first
time Frank that we were separated in you know from in the womb really so that
was a very challenging experience certainly for me um when I look back at my
life experience that was um I guess some would say you know traumatic and um
and led to some probably some poor decision not probably some poor decisions
and on my behalf you’re so good at this because you’re getting into all the
stuff I want to talk about just naturally leading into it but let me just
take a back play to BYU you transition you you utiliz that experience got
into broadcasting all the way up to the highest Heights uh and and then you
had a little bit of a dip yeah a little issue and so I want to get there and
get how that propelled you into what you’re doing with mental health and
recovery and working with UE currently but but let’s go back let’s go back
way back to the islands I mean everybody says like I want to I want to live
in Hawaii yeah you know I want to grow up in Hawaii and what so what is that
experience was that experience what we all think it is I think that you know
the the interesting part of that experience in part is that whatever your
experience is if you don’t have any other frame of reference it’s like this
is just what we do you know so for me I don’t have anything to compare it
against except talking to somebody else and what their experience might have
been and and I could like look at you as a kid from California Oh California
man what was that like you know that must have been awesome and you’re like
that’s just kind of what we did so I think for those of us that grew up in
the islands um it it’s just kind of you know that that’s all you know uh I
compare it to my father who was an Entertainer um and tell us I mean so my
dad was on the original ha yeah Alma is famous but your dad was another level
famous and I watched him growing up I didn’t even know it on Hawaii 5 he
played the character of Ben CA so this is you know my dad growing up and and
that’s what he did and people go oh man it must have been kind of interesting
or different or weird because your dad was an actor I’m like I don’t know
that’s just like what my dad did whatever your dad did for a job or whoever’s
listening whatever your father did for a job it’s like oh that’s what Dad
does um it’s just it it’s not something that that you look at and and you
might have some you know conscious understanding because of people’s comments
about it or the way that they treat your father because of what what he does
but that that for me it was just what my dad did so for me growing up in
Hawaii is just how we grew up now it was a great experience um and Hawaii is
truly a Melting Pot of cultures and nationalities and heritages and there’s
something really cool uh about that mixture and in Hawaii there’s you know
and I don’t know if this is going to be offensive or not so we’ll take a shot
at it well you know what the nice thing about saying something that may or
may not be offensive Abby is an amazing editor and I love it so let’s go in
Hawaii like a a a um a dog that is many breeds like what what we might call a
mut mut right sure in Hawaii you call that a PO dog cuz it’s just a bunch of
things all mashed together and so in Hawaii so many of us come from so many
different cultures Philippino Chinese I mean cuz Hawaii early on with the
sugarcane industry and the pineapple industry there are a lot of immigrants
that are coming from Asia and Micronesia and so you have all of these different
you know cultures in in this Melting Pot and so people that you meet are you
know you ask them oh so so what are you and and the the response typically is
well kind of haali haali means that that I’m am a mixture of all of these
things including Caucasian because for those that are unfamiliar with that
term howly means to is is a Caucasian would be a term for the Caucasian race
so the majority of us are a mixture of something and it’s a a beautiful um
backdrop for really what Hawaii is and my mother so my father was born in
Samoa raised in Hawaii my mother and then went to Stanford University
speaking of my dad my mother is from here she’s from Utah and met my father
as my dad finished Stanford went uh on a LDS mission to Samoa and then came back
he was going to law school and he was teaching Sunday school my mom was
visiting an aunt and and uh and working in uh you know Northern California
and happened to be in my dad’s Sunday school class and was just enamored by
this beautiful tall handsome you know dark you know guy from from Hawaii
sounds like you’re describing yourself and my dad is I should say was my dad
passed away a few years ago my dad and I I’m one of those guys that that had
great admiration and respect for my father and what he did uh as a performer
and I if I ever had an opportunity even when I was coming home to visit or um
any other opportunity if my dad was speaking or he was performing I would do
everything that I could to go and watch him and study him because he was uh a
magnificent orator uh for some might uh recognize him from some of the other
work that that he has done uh the Testaments which is a church LDS Church
uction he plays the the prophet amaron in that um and we were just back in
Hawaii my my myself my wife Christa and our two young younger Sons uh my two
younger Sons our two sons Gabe and Isaac who are 10 and 11 and we made it a
point to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center because my dad narrates a um
the IMAX theater um uh presentation there m and man I’ll tell you what man I
went to this thing and and I hadn’t been back to Hawaii since my father
passed away and we go to this this thing to watch the um the J I think it’s
the Hawaiian journey I can’t remember the name of it but um and as I’m
sitting there watch just weeping and listening to my father listening to my
father’s voice and he’s so powerful and so I’m really feel blessed in the
industry that I’m in both in recovery industry and you know specifically more
in the broadcast industry to have a father that in a lot of ways paved the
way for a guy like me to be able to have the job that I have and and there
are others that that have done that like Aisa who’s a good friend of mine
classmate of mine at BYU but anyway um I don’t want to get too far off track
but growing up was a mixture of kind of these things where my dad is just
that’s what he does and at the same time personally recognizing wow this guy
is amazing and um and I I would and aspiring to be like him which is a really
High bar you know and can you can set yourself up from a mental health
standpoint to have some expectations like oh man I really want to be that and
the reality is none of us will ever be any anybody else like the the the I
think the real um the real goal is to find your best self and there’s a part
of that where you’re you’re I don’t know if idolizing is the the right word
might be too strong but at least looking at somebody and aspiring to have
some of those qualities and so that’s you know for for me as far as my
relationship with my father um man he was just an amazing um person orator
performer and I was blessed to be able to to grow up uh with him as my dad so
you’re a big personality and you command a room when you walk in and one of
the things I really notice about you when we’re working together is the way
that you interact with people and I know that you’re in a situation where a
lot of people know you and you just can’t know all of the people but you
treat everybody like you grew up on the islands together it doesn’t matter
who it is and that’s an amazing quality is did that did you develop that on
the islands did you develop that because the of the way your father
interacted with people or your family or how did that where did you get that
I think that that is partly a cultural thing you know because you hear people
talking about the Aloha spirit and how beautiful it is and I you know I have
guys in in our industry like Vai or like you know big Buddha um uh Leroy tail
uh who goes by the the you know the moniker big Buddha um and that that just
exude this Aloha spirit and so I still remember growing up and my father used
to to talk to my brother and I about what our culture represented and you
know as as many indigenous cultures there there was um a sense of community
that was um larger than than just Larger than Life and in Hawaii and I this
does not necessarily relate to modern day but but this would be what your
heritage would would teach you in Hawaii in the olden days in Hawaii if
somebody walked in front of your house it would be offensive if you do not
reach out to them and like my father was saying this is Hawaiian not someone
but hey Kai come in come and join me in my house and let me feed you and
whatever is mine is yours right that’s that there there was no real ownership
of things everything was communal and so I I think that there’s a part of
that that that has continued for the Polynesian people to reach out and and
connect on on a on a a more on a larger level and so everybody is part of
your family and and like close family and in the the Tongan language there is
no real uh word for aunt your your mother’s sister your brother’s sister who
we would say oh that’s my Auntie M right there’s no real word for that that’s
just your they become your mom the word would be a your mother so um there is
this this sense of we’re all a family right and I think that that permeates
even today and there’s a you know certainly a cultural for the younger
generation coming up in that that I get a chance sometimes to work with
there’s there’s a lot that they’re battling with because of Western culture
versus their their native culture and so there’s some struggles there and I
hope that we continue to to build and maintain that communal family type of
environment right where you know every Everybody well I went to Samo um this
was probably 25 years ago now I went to Samoa on a news uh assignment and I
had never been to Samoa before I went to Samoa was hosted by the the
governor’s office in Samoa and I went I go around Pongo Pango and um uh the
the island there it was for a celebration of Flag Day and one of the things
that was interesting there’s no homeless people no homeless people in s
because that would be offensive to your family if if you had a family member
that was homeless on the street so everybody takes care of everybody and um
so it’s it’s you know some of those things I I think we can learn from it’s
like okay uh are they but some of them are impractical at times but but at
the same time I think there’s some very valuable um cultural lessons that we
can learn not just from I mean from each other right what you know your
heritage my Heritage my mother’s herit all these different things it’s to be
open to that it’s like yeah you know instead of this kind of divide and
separation it’s like okay where where do we connect here yeah yeah I’m so
glad that you talked about that I my first exposure to the Polynesian culture
and I’m I’m probably using this incorrectly don’t be offended but I’m using
it you know generally yeah for people from the islands and okay so was when I
went to Junior College in California and immediately landed in all of a
sudden there were a bunch of other guys with a vowel for their last name just
like me yeah I thought we were related so anyway we we the thing that I
noticed immed mediately in this culture is like they were all together yeah
they they kind of you know went through campus together they got ready
together for practice break time they were together there was music before
there was music after they were dancing with each other like it was a very
family oriented yeah group and a fiercely loyal yeah group and sometimes that
Fierce loyalty manifested itself in violent I don’t know how else to put it
yeah protection yeah of the group yeah and I’m sure that you’ve experienced
that as well is that something that you also have a sense of is this loyalty
to the yeah absolutely and I I think that for instance when I got to be BYU
um and and let me be clear I I’m coming to BYU from puno high school now
punal High School people always ask what high school do you go to in Hawaii
do you go to kooku do you go to St St Louis now St Louis has has produced
many great quarterbacks um in including uh Marcus Mariota the Heisman Trophy
winner tuatonga VOA um and the list is long right uh of great quarterbacks
darn Arsenal who uh played at the University uh of Utah but so when they find
out okay I went to puno uh the private schools in in Hawaii had their own
separate uh league so we’re talking about Kamehameha which is a school that
was established by one of the queens of Hawaii who put aside money to educate
the Hawaiian people so if you go to kamea you have to have Hawaiian Heritage
um and my father really wanted to go to to kamea but he he was in Hawaiian so
he end ends up at puno puno was EST established by some of the early
missionaries uh in Hawaii and it’s a very old private school and almost you
know it’s a prep school and Barack Obama uh went to uh punal High School um
and has it has produced a lot of great leaders and business owners um one of
the owners of of uh of eBay and and and uh and America Online um just some
some great leaders so I didn’t grow up I grew up upper middle class so you
know when I come to puno excuse me when I come to BYU um part of me was felt
a little bit like an outsider because I’m coming to puno to BYU and all of
these other guys are coming from Campbell High School and kahoku and and uh
why and I like Kurt goil was from uh High School in Hawaii on the west side
of Wahu that that was pretty rough and and so what but when I got there the
interesting thing in Hawaii there might have been a little bit of divide
between the private school kids and the public school kids but when I got to
BYU it was like open arms and all the guys embrac cuz we’re all from Hawaii
so even a guy named Todd Olson who was from K which was my rival school that
I that you know was my rival in high school and he’s on the the team too and
all of a sudden we’re best friends and um I remember coming in Norm Chow who
is also a puno grad who recruited me um Norm uh had it set up for uh some of
these older guys just like any other college but these older guys that were
from Hawaii that were in charge of taking care of the younger guys coming in
like Robert anai Lewis Wong um Kurt go Thor salanoa uh Luli um all of these
guys that and and none of these guys uh went to puno uh you know these guys
all went to the to to the public schools so that Fierce loyalty that you’re
talking about in islands where okay we might not get along because CU we come
from different you know groups MH but when we get to to BYU we’re all one
group yeah and it was a beautiful thing and and those guys they they saved
saved me in a lot of ways because they took care of us you know so did Norm
Norm Chow did yeah um and understanding kind of the the cultural shock that
it is for many of us to come from the islands and now now you’re on the
mainland and um you know having experiences that are are a little unique I I
still remember my freshman year were playing a JV game and we’re driving
we’re driving down to Dixie to play Dixie’s team and we get on the bus to go
down to Dixie and we’re in the bus for 4 hours and I’m like bro like we would
have been around the island three times by now like where are we going so you
know those kinds of experiences but but and the people that can relate to you
on that are all the guys that are from Hawaii sure all the guys that are from
Island it’s like yeah yeah yeah I’m so glad you brought up nor Chow Norm Chow
I I got to know Norm Chow a little bit later in his career when he when he
worked with the University of Utah and still I think he did the most
masterful job no offense to the current offensive coordinator Andy lwig but
but Norm Chow did a masterful job of getting that University of Utah football
team to a bowl game and winning yeah a bow game with the mix of talent how
would you say what do we say a mix of what would be a mix of talent is that
like a PO dog like yeah like a PO dog a haol mix of of characters that was
that was that Utah football team anyway uh Norm Chow such an amazing
individual and you have a lot of incredible stories he was influential in
your life absolutely and and his leadership and what he was able to provide
for you yeah I giving me opportunity because I I was a good running back and
I was the leading rusher in the state of Hawaii coming out of my senior
season um but didn’t have a whole lot of looks our team didn’t have a good
overall record um we had the leading rusher in the state which was me we had
the leading receiver in the state which was my counterpart one of my best
friends Barry naoni who ended up at Portland State um and and we just there
wasn’t a whole lot of at that time for us um guys getting recruited out of
puno like MTI ta is also a puno kid ends up at Notre Dame right and then
notorious for a lot of other things that that happened right along the way
but he’s a puno kid even though he was you know born and raised in Kahuku so
there are some kids that would get scholarship bar not only my best friend
was one of those guys that was from kyua and um but was scholar shipped into
to to go to puno and so you know the I forgot what the question was to be
honest with you the the the life yeah so so Norm being a puno guy was
instrumental in getting me uh a college scholarship the reality of that time
frame when I was being recruited out of puno Hawaii was losing every one of
their top players was going to beu even the non-lds guys Kirk o was non-lds
he was player of the year in football offense as a quarterback defense as a
safety Player of the Year in basketball one of the most talented athletes to
come off the island right and he ends up at BYU Thor salanoa player of the
year ends up at BYU now LDS kid and L Himi same thing ldes but these are all
the best players in the in the state that if the University of Hawaii could
have gotten those those kids to stay then they would have had a competitive team
um but everybody was leaving so the university way at the at the time what
almost had thrown their hands up in the air and just like well we can’t
compete against BYU so when I’m coming out of of high school my senior year
I’m an LDS kid um with some ties because my mom is from Utah MH and when I
had one visit with uh with the um one of the coaches from Hawaii uh one of
the Aina Brothers was was coaching over there and he he asked me he said are
you thinking about BYU I said well they’re talking to me and that’s the last
conversation I had with him and so they they they just there were a few other
running backs one from a neighbor Island that they ended up signing uh to
letters of intent so I really didn’t have a whole lot of options like my
options were BYU or you know I could have walked on at UCLA um and they had
some interest and or the University of Hai but my father was very adamant as
a guy that that you know was was very um had a very strong opinion about the
importance of education for good reason you know as a guy that was a first
generation uh American and had the opportunity go Stanford University um he
wanted us to go somewhere and experience something off the island so going to
the University of Hawaii that wasn’t really something that that would have
been in the cards for my brother or myself not an option yeah but Norm Shia
was was instrumental in my brother and I ending up at BYU yeah you know what
this is I don’t know how you feel I’m parched and you’re doing all the
talking I’m going to take a quick I’m going to take a quick drink and I hope
you will too yeah have you ever had this by the way um I’ve had some bucked
up products I don’t but I I haven’t had their prepared drinks that that you
can get at the the convenience store it’s so nice yeah this this I I got the
CH Cherry candy bucked up energy drink look at this for you and me yeah zero
sugar and I love bucked up uh and I I do use some of their other powdered
products I can tell I saw your biceps when you walked in Ah that’s good okay
now we can probably get through the rest of the podcast I hope I would love
to stay on your background growing up it’s fascinating and I think it’s LED I
mean we’re we’re we just don’t have time to dig that deep into it but clearly
it’s led to where you are today but there’s also there’s other experiences
that have led to this point in your life because you you went like I said BYU
big personality transferred into transition that into a broadcasting career
locally very well-known director of Sports at one of the local channels um
but you mentioned something but but you know people may or may not know that
your life took a funny turn yeah not funny haha necessarily no it wasn’t that
uh and you’ve battled back yeah to the point where you are today but you
mentioned something earlier I just wanted I want to hit on that again you and
to uh from birth always together yeah Elementary School High School College
tout decides to go on a mission you did not go on a mission and that was the
first time you were separated and you felt like that was a traumatic
experience yeah for you you talk about uh you know separation anxiety um and
Trauma uh imagine you know if you were to be separated from your arm that
you’ve had your entire life and and now all of a sudden you look around and
your arms not there like my my he was a part of me right I call him my my
partner from the womb and so when he ends up going and serving a mission uh
and and we’re separated for the first time um that coupled with a lot of the
other things that I was dealing with both as a student and as an athlete um
were really uh tough and that when we have situations like that in our lives
stress or other you know things that impact us mentally emotionally um then
we we try to find ways to to soothe that and for me um opiates became that
and interestingly enough and I don’t know what your your high school
experience was but when I was in high school I had many injuries right never
never once I broke my nose multiple times had a terrible elbow injury
shoulder injury um never once in my high school career did I have an injury
and get prescribed narcotics not once right well let me just let me just
interject there because uh I was talking about my experience with the
Polynesian culture yeah and and we we had a we had a guy on the on the
football team at El Camino and he was a running back and he was fierce fierce
he had a terrible terrible ankle injury yeah and uh they sent him to the
family doctor which was his auntie yeah and there was there were no
prescriptions right she did did she do the samon FAO I don’t know I don’t
know what that is oh I think we’re talking about the same thing well well you
know like a friction massage when you go and you get a friction massage and
so you know it’s a deep tissue massage deep tissue well the deep tissue
massage was her standing and walking full weight on his injured ankle to the
point where he passed out yeah this is a very common by the by the way when
it comes to the he would tell us the story and he would well up like he he
was still experiencing he would start sweating and tearing up he passed out
several times and you you know the miraculous thing about that he healed it
he played the he played the next week and he never got injured one of the
great stories that that that I’ve heard over the years of that Sao massage
right is this guy hurts his ankle and so they they bring in somebody to do
the massage on him and and it’s it is really painful and so it’s it’s so
painful that he starts swearing at the the the person who’s doing the massage
and the person doing the massage gets offended and ends up beating him up but
the the injury was better care of the injury the injury was better oh it’s
such a great culture I I I don’t I kind of want to experience that massage
just to experience it but I’m super yeah I I I don’t really want it is a very
deep tissue and what it does is is it it brings um you know blood circulation
back into the area and can facilitate healing sure um and uh it’s not
something that a novice should should attempt I mean there there are people
in in the Polynesian culture that that are you know very good at it um but
you know I’m sure you could do a lot of damage you would do it improperly but
you know for for me that that wasn’t a part of as I was growing up again I
just never had drugs okay so where did you have so I know about your injury
history and I know it was prominent yeah and and so that’s hard to deal with
uh and now you have this other tra traumatic event with TOA being separated
and and so you started leaning on on the prescriptions where did did you go
seek that out how did you get access so again when we’re talking about pain
that we have whether it’s physical pain or emotional pain we’re looking for
Relief you know naturally we’re seeking relief um for me I don’t I don’t even
remember to be honest with you it was my freshman year I’m at biu two a days
staying at at John Hall and Hilman Halls um and coming you know from being
the number one running back in Hawaii right I come to BYU and I remember some
of the early practices and one of the practices they asked me to he said uh
one of the coaches told me go over there and grab that blocking bag and go
hold the blocking bag I was like what I was just like what is going on and it
it’s I I think for for many of us I don’t know if you experienced this
because you go JC and then you know to a starting role at the University of
of Utah uh but for some of like for me it was devastating emotionally devastating
and I still remember for I still growing up and I mentioned this early on in
our conversation that I had I looked at my father and I I said man I’d really
like to be like that that that’s a really high bar sure and and I didn’t even
mention this my father won a a state championship at Point ho as a running
back and then earned a scholarship to go to um ended up first at meno uh
college and then and then to on to Stanford right so for me I always even in
the success that I had I still was to a degree comparing myself to my father
MH and and that can be a very dangerous thing you know my father and this is
not an an overstatement my father was a legend in Hawaii and so anything that
I did in spite of whatever accolades came along with that there was also the
comparison even if it was only me making the comparison yeah but man my dad
was he’s a legend so there there was a sense uh even if it might have been
kind of underlying within me that you’re just not good enough right so I get
to to BYU and my freshman year I’m holding back and and not getting any
playing time and and man this that that voice that’s in the back of of our
heads that that you know tells us terrible things about ourselves got really
loud and I was really struggling so I I end up with I don’t know what the
injury was but I get prescribed from the doctor right the protocol at least
for us back then was you get hurt the trainer comes evaluates you on the
field and makes an appointment for you to go see the doctor after practice
you go see the doctor after practice the doctor might make a recommendation
or prescribe for you and at that time they were prescribing pretty liberally
and um and they they didn’t I I don’t think they had the information
certainly they didn’t have the information then that that we have now about
the dangers of opioids so uh at BYU in the training room you went from the
doctor’s office which was one room they would write you a prescription and
then then there was a pharmacy in the training room the t