National football awards are nice.

Five a.m. wake-ups and daily trips from Laie Point to Punahou are sometimes not.

An orderly life can be overbearing, but Manti Te'o won't complain. The priorities of a Punahou senior are clear, as a 3.2 grade-point average shows. Obligations to his blood family (as the oldest of six children), his football family (all-state linebacker, two-time player of the year), his Boy Scouts family (Eagle Scout). Obligations easily remembered. Taking younger siblings, teammates and scouts under his wing? Easily done.

But what about Micaela?

Te'o met the fourth-grader through his school's peer program. On the surface, they had nothing in common. A hulking 6-foot-2, 235-pound force of nature on the football field and ... a tiny 9-year-old girl? But Te'o has three little sisters back home and knows a thing or two about making kids smile. So they smile together, Manti and Micaela.

One day, feeling brave, Micaela asked Manti if she could have his gloves—the $60 gloves so valuable as part of his arsenal on the football field. Manti thought carefully. After the season, he promised, she could have them. They bonded.

It is his true gift: He keeps his word, or tries to. He doesn't care if you think it's corny. He'll do the right thing anyway.

“;He was always happy, always smiling. He stood out from the rest—not so much because of his stature, but his obedience,”; said Laie Elementary School teacher Pauline Saizon, recalling Te'o as a kindergartner. “;They learned ballroom dancing and he was always a gentleman, never laughed or giggled.”;

Raised by Brian and Ottilia, both counselors, Manti grew up rich with knowledge at home and church. He also learned the art of connecting.

“;He makes you feel like when you're talking to him, that you are the most important person in his life,”; Saizon said. “;He has a way to make you feel so wonderful about yourself.”;

Te'o plays with a passion that kids tap into, but his team-first attitude has a deeper effect.

“;Children may think, 'The drug scene is not good for me. I want to listen to my mom and dad,'”; Saizon added. “;Hoorah for that. The kids need someone to hang on to now and he's more reachable and applicable in their lives than anyone else.”;

Brian Te'o sees a boy turning into a man.

“;All this media attention doesn't change his relationships with people,”; he said. “;That's why he's able to affect younger kids. He doesn't see himself as this idol or put himself on a pedestal. He sees himself as an older brother.

“;I think that's the void Manti wants to fill, to be the tipping point in someone's life. That's some powerful medicine.”;

Micaela's mom had doubts that the busy Manti Te'o would remember about the gloves—the promise. Micaela insisted otherwise. They went to the state championship game and cheered along with nearly 26,000 other fans as Punahou won.

At game's end, as Buffanblu Nation celebrated, Micaela was but a tiny ripple in a sea of blue.

Helmet off, Manti searched and searched. He finally found her and took off the gloves.

Once again, Manti and Micaela smiled.