By Paul Honda

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There is an old saying about resilience.

It is blunt: What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.

Shawdan and Shaydan Pacheco have heard the story countless times. They were premature at birth in a harrowing situation. Eventually, the twins became world-record-breaking youth powerlifters. Football players at No. 7-ranked Waianae, which was unbeaten before falling to Waipahu over the weekend.

Shawdan is a key three-way player for the Waianae Seasiders, a 6-foot, 220-pound inside linebacker, slotback and place-kicker. Shaydan, the younger of the twins, suffered a shoulder injury this season, relegated to the sideline as a senior.

Shawdan is a game-plan wrecker. After returning from an ankle injury that cost him one game (Kailua), Pacheco took an interception 74 yards to the house on Saturday that gave Waianae a 13-0 lead over Waipahu. The visitors then rallied for a 29-13 win, running away from Pacheco with productive results.

“I think it’s a good loss for us,” Pacheco said. “During the game, some of our guys let their emotions get the best of them. We’ll look at film and we’ll stay together. The teams we played before weren’t as good as Waipahu. They were a good test for us.”

Last year, the Seariders went 4-3 in OIA Division I (4-6 overall), falling to Leilehua in the playoffs. This season, at 6-1 overall, Waianae is having its best start since 2017.

Defensively, Pacheco has 32 tackles, including three for loss, along with two passes broken up and one sack. Offensively, he has 32 receptions for 401 yards and three touchdowns. If that wasn’t enough, he also has two field goals made and 23 PATs.

“He makes 50-yard field goals at practice,” Waianae coach Vince Nihipali noted. “The (defensive) position he plays, he’s got to be able to cover and play the run at the same time. This past game I was sending him and he was blowing stuff up. Or I’ll put him on the line as a fourth lineman.”

In a year when several Seariders transferred out, the Pacheco brothers became an anomaly by transferring in.

“We lost a lot of O-linemen to Kapolei, but we have guys that stepped up. I’m not surprised,” Nihipali said.

Now in his second season as head coach at Waianae, Nihipali first saw the brothers play when they were freshmen at Kamehameha. Nihipali was the coach at Moanalua then.

“They were pretty good size. I used to run into their dad at the gym, but I didn’t know they were his kids,” Nihipali said.

After Nihipali led Moanalua to success in OIA Division I, the program moved up to the Open Division, but Nihipali left because of philosophical differences with administration. He became a finalist for the opening at Kamehameha, then joined coach Bryson Carvalho’s staff at Waipahu, where Shawdan and Shaydan followed.

A year later, Nihipali was hired at Waianae. The twins moved on to Mililani as juniors, then reunited with Nihipali at Waianae.

“Shawdan’s explosion, the velocity, the power, it’s everything,” Nihipali said.

Shawdan Pacheco hadn’t played on offense regularly in years, but embraced the dual role of inside linebacker and slotback this season.

The brothers let their actions speak more than words.

“They don’t say much, but they work. Shawdan hasn’t said 50 words to me in three years since I met his family,” Nihipali said. “How you doing? ‘Good, Coach.’ You sure? ‘Yeah. That’s pretty much it.”

Their feats are off the charts, however, in another world: powerlifting. Shawdan still loves basketball, but COVID-19 interrupted that relationship. During the pandemic, at 12, he and Shaydan became familiar with powerlifting. In short time, they set world records after learning the craft under their father, a lifelong powerlifter.

Several of Shawdan’s World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters records have been broken, but he still has the marks in 13-under, 165 weight class bench press (203.5 pounds), 15U, 220 weight class bench press (303.5 pounds) and 17U, 220 weight class (524.5 pounds).

He also has the International Powerlifting Association 15U, 200 weight class bench press mark (310 pounds).

Shaydan once held the WABDL 13U, 148 weight class bench press record at 187.2 pounds.

Nihipali sees the clear connection between explosiveness in powerlifting and playing in the box on the gridiron.

“You’ve got to be able to put the speed of the bar from point A to point B, so it’s a lot of hips. Dropping hips, catching with your hands and all kinds of different things. The flat-out power explosion and strength. As a ’backer,when you engage with a 300-pound lineman, you have to have power or get blown away.”

Danny Pacheco played football at Kamehameha, then UNLV, where he shifted from defensive end to center. To this day, he is a low-key, upbeat offensive line coach for the Seariders, but in his gut, the lingering effects of football are undeniable.

“To be honest, I never wanted them to play football. I played in college, but I wanted them to play soccer or basketball. It’s just the injuries. I still feel the pains today,” Danny Pacheco said. “For me, football was my way out. They don’t need football. I tried my best.

Powerlifting, he adds, is always an open door at the next level.

“As strong as Shawdan is, there’s 30 colleges on the East Coast that offer powerlifting. I keep trying to persuade him, but always, ‘No, dad. I’m playing football.’ He loves everything about it. He’ll watch film,” he said.

If coach Pacheco seems just a wee bit wary, it was built into him from the start. It was a tense week in late August 2007.

The twins were due in November. But in week 30, nine weeks before due time, their mother began to have contractions.

Soon after, she was in dire straits. Shawna Pacheco was becoming a mother for the first time, but complications became severe.

“I was scared. I knew the boys were not ready yet. They were trying to get me down to 36 weeks (from the normal 39). ‘Can we try 34? Can we try 32?’ My body started to shut down. It was a bunch of emotions,” she said.

Danny Pacheco braced himself, but there was little he could do when they returned to Kaiser Medical Center in Moanalua. He held on to hope.

“At one point, it was a decision between her and the babies. They were at 31 weeks,” he said. “Everything just happened so fast. Your children’s birth should be the happiest moment in your life and it becomes the worst,” he said.

The whirlwind happened all in one day. Without massive infusions of blood and platelets, Shawna Pacheco would not have survived.

“My husband looked terrified and that freaked me out even more. I was sedated, but I could see him,” she said. “I bled out. I almost died on the table. It was really scary. From what I was told, he was freaking out. The doctors had to talk to him.”

Shawdan was first, 3 pounds and 13 ounces. Shaydan emerged 20 seconds later at 3 pounds, 1 ounce.

“They had to take the boys right away. I felt bad for Danny,” Shawna said.

She remembers 11 nurses and doctors in that room.

“Me and Danny actually weren’t big blood donators before, but when it happens to you, it changes your mentality. We’ve made it a thing. We donate every so many months.”

Each passing minute and hour without danger was a blessing. Danny got to touch the twins, but Shawna remained in recovery from her C-section and complications.

“I didn’t get to see them until around four days later. The nurses and our family would show me pictures of them, though,” she said. “Family could only see them through the window, but they allowed Danny to go in the NICU.”

Danny made first contact but held off on holding the twins until Shawna was healthy and strong enough.

“They were in the incubator, but the nurses were really good. They wanted skin-to-skin contact. As soon as my wife could come down to the NICU, then they did the skin to skin,” he recalled.

“The nurses kept asking me to do it, but I said no, I wouldn’t do it without my wife. It was still a tough time for her.”

The recovery was slow and steady. Return trips because of infections to Shawna’s healing incision.

“In the end, what can you do? You don’t think about it. You try to be the rock that everybody can lean on,” Danny Pacheco said. “I don’t know. I don’t even remember. I just know we did it. We had some amazing nurses in the NICU.”

As they grew, Shawdan was usually in urgency mode.

“Shawdan always wanted to do things quicker. We bought him a walker because he just wanted to start walking all of a sudden,” she said. “Sitting and crawling to walking. His brother was just, I’m going to sit. I don’t want to walk.”

By the time they were toddlers, they were running amok like any other kids. They were doing push-ups soon after. When they were 12, Danny introduced them to lifting.

“When I tell people about them being preemies,” Shawna said, “they can’t believe it.”

Coach Nihipali has enjoyed the process of Shawdan’s development as a leader.

“He’s become a little more vocal. He’s such a reserved kids. I give the kids 30 seconds every couple of days to speak, and he does it. ‘Eat right. Get your sleep. Don’t eat junk food. Eat good food to power your body.’ He says the same thing every time and he’s kind of gotten out of his shell,” Nihipali said. “He just practices and plays, that’s it. He never complains, ever. He’ll figure it out and do it the right way.”

Nihipali, a Western Oregon graduate, believes Shawdan Pacheco could follow a similar path. The school offers a degree in kinesiology, which Pacheco hopes to major in. Coaching might be in the works, too.

“Western Oregon is a great place to be a GA (graduate assistant),” said Nihipali, who became a GA there after a career-ending neck injury.

In June, Shawdan and family visited Western Oregon, Southern Oregon, Linfield and Simpson. Also on his list of possibilities: Lewis and Clark, Whitworth, Pacific. and Puget Sound.

“I see him as a linebacker in college. Could he play slot? He’s fast enough. It’s amazing how versatile this kid is. He’s had so many explosive plays this year on both sides of the ball.”

Pacheco is a planner, which is a big reason he landed at Waianae.

“It’s good because I know Coach Vince will get me to the next level as long as I play the best I can play,” he said.

Setting goals matters for both brothers. Shaydan plans to go into construction work while continuing to ink tattoos. Shawdan and Shawna have been his test models.

“I have my whole left leg (inked),” Shawdan said. “A tribal on my back and on my calf, the number 6 with a ‘W’. I have a shark, too. That was just for (Shaydan’s) practice. He has always like to draw from a young age. He would draw random stuff like cartoon characters.”

Shawdan is eyeing a future in small-college football with the goal of becoming a physical education teacher like his dad.

“I want to become a strength coach just because my dad does it and he makes it fun. A P.E. and lifting teacher,” he said.

The potential to become a college or pro level strength coach is there.

“That would be a dream,” he said. “Being a teacher like my dad would be the goal.”

Shawdan wants to keep lifting as a major part of his life. Going away for college is part of the process. Next summer, he boards his flight and opens a new chapter.

“I love my brothers. I just thank my family,” he said. “I think when I leave, my mom will cry, then my dad. I’ve never really seen him cry.”

Well, there was that time back at Kaiser Medical. Danny Pacheco has been all smiles since.

SHAWDAN PACHECO

Waianae football • 6-0, 220 • Senior

Favorite hobbies: Weight lifting, video games

Personal records, lifting

>> Bench max: 345

>> Squat max: 515

>> Dead lift max: 527

Top 3 movies/shows/books

1. “The Program”

2. “Minions” movie series

3. “Yellowstone”

Top 3 homemade food

1. Dad’s steak. “He used to grill it, but now we don’t have a grill, so he cooks it in the frying pan.”

2. Dad’s French toast

3. Mom’s chili. “I can make the french toast and chili.”

Top 3 foods/drinks (eating out)

1. Hamburgers — The Village Bottle Shop (Kapolei)

2. Steak — Outback Steakhouse (closed on Oahu 2024)

3. Sushi — Ahi and Vegetable (Kapalama).

Top 3 music artists

1. Chris Stapleton

2. Morgan Wallen

Favorite song: “Adore You” by Miley Cyrus

Favorite athlete: LeBron James

“He’s the greatest of all time.”

Funniest teammate: Xavier Kekahuna

“He can make anyone laugh at any time. He could also do a 10-minute comedy routine.”

GPA (cumulative): 3.88

“It’s just doing my work when the teacher gives it. Not procrastinating. My parents always told me I have to do the assignment, so I try to do it as soon as possible.”

Favorite teacher (all time): “My dad. He teaches physical education at Nanakuli.”

Favorite motto: Always earned, never given.

Bucket list: Meet LeBron James.

Time machine

“Go back to when I went to the Football Hall of Fame (youth championships). Also go back in time to watch my dad play football at UNLV.

Youth sports: played soccer, baseball, basketball, football and powerlifting

If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?

“Start doing timed sprints and speed training earlier. I started sprinting my sophomore year. I would’ve started at 12.”

“To my brothers Shaydan and Shaxdan. I love them.

To my parents for giving me the best life.”