In football, Hughes was a member of three consecutive Oahu Prep Bowl and Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship teams.
As a sophomore in 1978, he was named to the All Big Sky Conference first-team,[3] and also received honorable mention on the AP Division II All-America team.
Hughes, quarterback Joe Aliotti, and halfbacks Cedric Minter and Terry Zahner were christened Boise's "Four Horsemen," and the quartet played key roles as seniors on the Broncos team that won the NCAA Division I-AA title in 1980.
[8] In 1983, Hughes met Kalua Kaiahua from Napili and had a spiritual experience where there was an "opening the doors of faith in God.".
There he pursued his ministry and served as running backs coach for Eagle High School, the Class A-1 (Division II) state champions in 1998.
Hughes and his ohana (family) relocated to the Seattle area in 1999 to accept a position on staff at Antioch Bible Church in suburban Redmond.
He also volunteered as an assistant football coach at Eastlake High School, where he taught his players the "highest values ... of sportsmanship, team play and doing [their] best in sports as in life."