By: Sam Arslanian

Before every USC football game a group of players gather and head to the bathroom together. They aren’t going to relieve themselves, rather searching for seclusion. The group consists of about 20 players and coaches on the Trojans’ roster, all of which are of Polyneisan descent. The group joins in prayer led by defensive line coach Vic So’oto, always finishing in song — the way they all have been raised.

A collegiate football team is often referred to as a fraternity, an everlasting bond and friendship, but for the Polynesian players at all levels of football, a cultural common denominator is an inseparable bond.
 
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania that comprises of more than 1,000 islands in or around the Polynesian triangle. People from this region are also referred to as Pacific Islanders, which is the blanket term used to describe those from Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The indigenous inhabitants of these islands share many similarities including related languages, cultural practices and traditional beliefs. The most recent United States Census with data available (2010) shows that more than 1.2 million Americans are of Polynesian descent — a 40% increase since the 2000 U.S. Census. In 2010, the most prevalent Polynesian heritages in America were Native Hawaiian (43%), Samoan (15.1%), Chamorro (12.2%) and Tongan (4.7%).

Al Lolotai, who was of Samoan ancestry, became the first player of Polynesian descent on a National Football League roster when he was signed to the Washington Redskins in 1945 — 14 years before Hawaii became part of the United States.
 
Lolotai was born in the Western Samoa Trust Territory and grew up in Laie, Hawaii where he attended Kahuku High School. He attended and played football for Weber Junior College (now Weber State University) from 1941-1942. 
 
Lolotai, an offensive lineman, played in the NFL for one season before signing with the All-America Football Conference’s Los Angeles Dons for four seasons.

Many Polynesian football players leave the islands seeking a career in sports — an opportunity to make a name for themselves and their family. When a Polynesian leaves the islands, a piece of the culture lives inside them. The way they were brought up manifests into the person they become and traditions are upheld.

Once their career has sunset, many elect to return to their home.

Ah You learned the importance of family and culture from a young age growing up in a village in Samoa. His family moved to Laie when he was a boy and his love for football blossomed.

While in Laie, Ah You attended Kahuku High School and was an exceptional football and basketball player. His success on the gridiron earned him a spot on the football team at Arizona State, where he won multiple awards including Outstanding Player in the 1970 Peach Bowl and Outstanding Defensive Player in the inaugural Fiesta Bowl in 1971.

Ah You's talents on the field weren't his only expertise. Every summer, he would return home to Laie, Hawaii to perform as the solo fire dancer at the Polynesian Cultural Center — perhaps the most notable way he preserved his cultural identity.

Kaufusi has also had experience with fire dancing. When Kaufusi was a senior in high school, Maninoa Tufono (now a USC defensive lineman), approached him and suggested that they and a few other Polynesians put on a Samoan fire knife show for Punahou high school’s homecoming. Reluctant at first, Kaufusi eventually agreed.

Reflecting on his performance, Kaufusi is glad he spent the time to learn how to fire knife and now retains a piece of Polynesian culture.

“I spin it all the time and try to do new tricks and it's a new hobby of mine, and I'm grateful for it,” Kaufusi said.

Ah You poses in front of Tita's Grill at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
(Photo By: Lillian Zeng)

These cultural traditions live inside Polynesians that have left the islands. Ah You is now considered by many to be the Polynesian breakout player of the modern era. Yet, through his years in the spotlight, returning to his hometown was always more important to him than continuing a career in football as a coach.

Ah You returned to his hometown of Laie, Hawaii where he centers his life on uplifting a community that has given him so much.

“There are a lot of people in our community that care for me and are always watching over me,” he said. “Whatever I accomplished, I wouldn't have been able to do that, if it wasn't for kind, good people in our community.”

Ah You now owns and operates a food truck, Tita’s Grill, in the Hukilau Marketplace inside the Polynesian Cultural Center that serves up local cuisine. Above all, he makes a point to serve his community. Ah You welcomes homeless people from the city to the back of the truck where they can get a hot meal on the house.

So’oto came to USC in March of 2020 from Virginia. One of the first things he did when he arrived on campus was gather all of the Polynesian players into a team room and sit them down for a talk about the philosophies and principles he and his players were raised under.

“I told them, ‘Look, this is how we've all been raised, this is the expectation and if you've been doing anything other than that you're wrong.’” So’oto said. “It means everything to be able to be here and to have influence and to have the ability to hold these guys accountable to what I know, and they know what they've been brought up in.”

Redshirt senior running back Vavae Malepeai (who is of Samoan heritage) was one of 20 Polynesians on the roster at the time and was in attendance for So’oto’s sit down.

Malepeai looks on before USC's 2018 matchup against Arizona.
(Photo By: Ling Luo)

“What I took from that meeting was to prepare as best as you can and be intentional about what you do on and off the field. Just as a person, how you hold yourself so that when that opportunity does come, you're ready to take and maximize it,” Malepeai said.

The group that was in the meeting that day has a special bond. It’s a similar connection to the fraternity of a football team, yet deepened through a mutual understanding of cultural values and heritage. Before every game that cultural background is recognized and celebrated.

“All the Polys meet in the locker room bathroom and then we all say a prayer together. We sing a song at the end of the prayer because that's how we're all raised,” Malepeai said. “We do that with coach Vic [So’oto] in the locker room bathroom before we take the field, and I feel like it's one of the most powerful things that we have here as far as Poly’ traditions go.”

West Coast schools like USC, Utah and BYU are considered Polynesian football Meccas. It’s not uncommon to see a large Polynesian presence on both sides of the ball, and when two physical teams meet it poses the age-old physics question: what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force.

“It adds more fuel to the fire because now you're trying to battle someone that's that has the same values and same upbringing and same mindset.” So’oto said. “We all have the same dominant mindset. The best thing about football is, at the end of the day, one one team is going to win. It's revved all the way up, I want to kick their ass more than any other game.”

While the Polynesian football pipeline is being built to other regions of the United States, namely the East Coast and South, it is rare for teams on the East Coast, like Niumatalolo’s Navy squad, to play in a game against a Polynesian powerhouse.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of the 2020 football schedule had at least one positive side-effect; the rearrangement of the schedule meant that Navy would square off against BYU in a Week One matchup.

The game was set to be a faceoff between two teams led by Polynesian head coaches who have more in common than a job description. BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and Niumatalolo both grew up in Laie, Hawaii where they learned to play football and spent time playing pickup basketball.

While the outcome of the game did not go the way Niumatalolo had hoped for, a 55-3 loss at the hands of a surging Cougars squad, he does acknowledge the significance of the teams’ third meeting.

These cultural connections are not uncommon between teams with large Polynesian presences.

Next time you attend a game between USC and Utah, or any two teams with a large Polynesian presence, don’t leave after the final whistle sounds. Stay in your seat, wait and observe.

The same guys that were on each other all night are now shaking hands and high-fiving. It leaves fans wondering: are they related, did they grow up together or are they just really great sportsmen? The answer is likely all of the above. Obviously the friends and family gravitate towards each other, but Malepeai views it as an opportunity to connect and meet new people.
 
“Just friendship, catching up. If it's Poly's that we've never met before, it's a chance to actually meet them because throughout the game, you're not really talking like that to each other, you’re just focused on winning and competing. But after you get to have fun and just talk crap a little bit, like in a joking way,” Malepeai said.

Malepeai recounted a fond memory from the 2020 Pac-12 Championship — a game in which the favored Trojans fell to the Oregon Ducks. Malepeai was sidelined with a knee injury, but after the loss he and the Trojans stood on the sideline heads hung while the Ducks celebrated on USC’s home turf.

That is all but one Duck: Isaac Slade-Matautia, Malepeai’s childhood best friend.

Malepeai and Slade-Matautia grew up together in Hawaii, and Malepeai credits Slade-Matautia for getting him involved in football. While Slade-Matautia’s team was celebrating, he stood by Malepeai to catch up.

“I told him to go celebrate with [his team] but he just wanted to cheer with me on the side,” Malepeai recounted. “We just lost, so I told him I’m going to go to the locker room. He actually walked all the way up the tunnel with me. It was just a special thing because you're not going to get those moments back.”

On the North Shore of Oahu near the Polynesian Cultural Center in 2016, there was a sea of people in t-shirts and shorts having a cookout on the roadside — if you were driving past, you may not have thought anything of it. Yet in that crowd were some of the most legendary Polynesians to play the game of football: Troy Polamalu and Vai Sikahema among the crowd, surrounded by family and friends.

Also at the cookout was NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche, who is one of the 10 members of the selection committee for the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame. From that event, he formulated an understanding of the Polynesian culture.

“It's like, ‘We're never ever bigger than one another. But when we're together, we're undefeated.’” Wyche said. “It was the coolest thing because everybody treated each other as if they'd known each other their whole lives.”

Wyche explained that the group didn’t rent out a park, dining hall or massive venue for the occasion. That wasn’t important; it was about being with each other and celebrating the success of a small but powerful, tight-knit culture.

The Polynesian Football Hall of Fame was founded in 2013 as a way to honor Polynesia’s greatest players, coaches and contributors.

The walls of the hall are lined with 36 of the most influential and notable Polynesian players/coaches. Among those enshrined in the hall are players that today’s youth looked up to like Polamalu, Junior Seau and Haloti Ngata alongside players like Squirmin’ Herman Wedemeyer, Al Lolotai and Herman “Buddy” Pi’Ikei Clark who paved the way for the next generation to succeed.

The 2020 NFL Draft was a significant year for Polynesians in professional football. Of the top 204 players in the 2020 draft class, 11 are of Polynesian descent — the largest percentage (5.4%) of any draft class, despite making up 0.3% of the American population. A draft class like that is celebrated as a cultural victory — a result of generations working to provide opportunity for the next.

“It means everything,” So’oto said. “It means the sacrifices that were made the generation before paid off and that's really all we're trying to do.”

“Anybody winning an award advances the culture, a little bit more, and hopefully allows for more opportunities for the generations to come,” So’oto said.

This process is perpetual. There is no end. It doesn’t stop at one generation or when one member of the community wins the Heisman Trophy.

Niumatalolo became only the second NCAA Division I coach of Polynesian descent — the first at any level of Samoan descent — when he took the head coaching job at Navy in 2007. Niumatalolo recognizes that he is the product of the sacrifices made before him and has opened the door for the next generation of Polynesian coaches.

“Norm Chow (who was the offensive coordinator for USC and the Tennessee Titans) was probably the first Polynesian coach that made it big. He opened the door for guys like me. I was hopeful and I became a head coach in 2007. Hopefully, if I could do well I could open up doors for other coaches in this profession,” Niumatalolo said.

Football is not a charity, especially at the collegiate level. It is not enough to be a “nice guy” to be kept around. To that, Niumatalolo feels a responsibility to his heritage and those that look up to him to succeed.

“You have to do good because if you don't, you're not gonna survive the tide,” he said. “Hopefully, the work you do, and the success you might have, might be able to open the doors for other minority or Polynesian young coaches and players.”

Jesse Sapolu, Mark Tuinei and Charley Ane are the Polynesian players that represented Polynesia in the NFL during the mid- to late-20th century. These players were big, sometimes physically larger than life, and assets to their respective teams on the line protecting quarterbacks or obliterating opposing offensive lines. These warriors of the trenches are the Polynesian players fans of a few generations ago remember. Back then, it was rare to see a Polynesian play off of the line.

That’s no longer the case. In today’s NFL it is not uncommon to see Polynesians playing skill positions. Players like Seau at linebacker, Polamalu at safety and Sikahema at running back blazed a trail for the next generation of Polynesian skill players.

“You see a lot of linemen coming out, but now there's a lot of skilled players,” Malepeai said. “It’s kind of just  going outside the comfort zone and learning skinnier Poly’ kids know that they can ball too and really make it out of what their environment is.”

These Polynesian football legends changed the way the game was played at their position. Polamalu is considered by many to have revolutionized the way the safety position was played.

Junior Seau brought a level of passion to the game of football in a way never before seen.

“Of all the players I’ve coached, [Seau’s] passion for the game, in every sense of it, was exceptional,” Patriots head coach Bill Belicheck told Patriots.com in 2015.

New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau (55) warms up on the field before an NFL wild-card playoff football game.
(File AP Photo)

Yet no matter how much these pioneers influenced the game of football, it was never about them.

“It's not just an individual thing, which is why you don't hear or see Polynesian football players bang their chest, brag or scream or play the diva role,” Wyche said.

This year's NFL Draft saw nine Polynesians drafted to NFL rosters — two of which were drafted in the top-10 selections. Wilson was drafted second overall to the New York Jets, and former Oregon offensive lineman Penei Sewell (who is of Samoan heritage) was drafted seventh overall to the Detroit Lions.

USC sent a host of Polynesian talent to NFL rosters in Jay Tufele (#106 Jacksonville), Marlon Tuipulotu (#189 Philadelphia) and Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Talanoa Hufanga (#180 San Francisco).

As each season comes and goes, college football sees more Polynesians on the field — not just in the Polynesian hotbeds, but across the country. The next generation of Polynesian football players is bright if they continue to follow in the footsteps of the players that have paved the way.

Polynesian culture is a culture of hard work, family and honesty. Together they are strong — working together to make a name for themselves on one of the biggest stages in America.