Washington State: Vaughn Lesuma

COURTESY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Vaughn Lesuma is the starting left tackle for Washington State after learning the game just two years ago.

Lesuma a nice Pac-10 beast

By Howie Stalwick
Special to the Star-Bulletin

PULLMAN, Wash. » George Yarno, the part-time father figure and part-time raving lunatic who coaches the offensive line at Washington State, walked off the field after a recent practice and offered his opinion on La'ie natives Vaughn and Reed Lesuma.

"They're so raw," Yarno cracked, "they don't know if the football is inflated or stuffed!"

Yarno, as he is wont to do, then proceeded to talk at length about his admiration and respect for the Lesuma brothers as people and athletes -- most definitely in that order.

"They are both great people," Yarno said.

"They are just great to work with. They work really hard."

It is rare when 300-pound, meat-chomping, bone-crunching football players are routinely described as "polite," "really nice" and "just the nicest young men." However, those descriptions of the Lesumas have been made constantly by teammates and coaches since the brothers transferred to WSU this year from Mt. San Jacinto College, a junior college in San Jacinto, Calif.

"They are very nice kids," quarterback Alex Brink said. "You can tell they care about people and they care about what they're doing."

Another term often used to describe Vaughn is "amazing." Both Lesumas are playing football for only the third year in their lives, and while Reed is a little-used reserve at right offensive tackle, older brother Vaughn is starting at left tackle in WSU's explosive offense.

"The more he plays, the better he will get," Yarno said. "I really believe the sky's the limit for him."

"I can't wait to watch him next year," guard Bobby Byrd said. "He'll be a dominant force."

A former missionary, Vaughn Lesuma, 25, never played football until he turned out for spring practice two years ago at Utah's Snow Junior College. A relative talked him into transferring to Mt. San Jac in the fall, and after one year as a part-time starter at offensive guard, Lesuma blossomed into a second-team JC All-American tackle last year.

Now, after three starts for the 2-1 Cougars, Lesuma will go up against one of the best defenses in college football when Washington State opens Pac-10 play Saturday at top-ranked USC.

"SC -- wow!" Lesuma said in his routinely enthusiastic manner. "I have nothing but respect for that program."

Lesuma said USC offered him a scholarship after his first season at Mt. San Jac.

However, Lesuma attended BYU-Hawaii for one semester after returning from his mission in Orange County, Calif., and that meant NCAA rules required him to earn an Associate of Arts degree before transferring.

The Trojans did not pursue Lesuma after last season, but WSU was one of many suitors. In a classic case of opposites attract, the mild-mannered Lesuma -- who does not smoke, drink or curse -- chose to work with Yarno, whose obscenity-laced temper tantrums are legendary.

"He's a great, great guy," Lesuma said. "I have so much admiration for him. That right there can be a bad thing. Sometimes, instead of going out to play well, I go out to not play bad, because I don't want to let him down."

Yarno said Lesuma makes "rookie mistakes," but the coach raves about Lesuma's attitude, work ethic and athleticism.

"I know he's going to be a dominant player," Yarno said. "It's just a matter of when."

"I'm still clearing out the butterflies," said Lesuma, a social science major. "This is a huge step for me.

"I have this opportunity to play this Division I level of football and play in the Pac-10. I'm humbled by it, and grateful for it."

Yarno, an NFL offensive lineman for 11 seasons, says the 6-foot-5, 329-pound Lesuma has definite NFL potential despite his age. Lesuma said he dreamed of an NFL career while growing up in Laie ("I was a 49ers fan since birth").

However, he was too heavy to play youth football, and he spent his high school years in Fiji -- where football is not played -- due to a job change for his father.

The Lesumas moved back to La'ie in time for Reed to play football for the first time as a senior reserve for 2001 state champion Kahuku.

Vaughn honed his athletic skills by playing rugby and basketball in Fiji, and he said his mission toughened him mentally.

"I've been in some tight situations," he said. "There were some ups and downs."

Translation: Lesuma found himself in some rough neighborhoods in gang-infested Southern California. Lesuma said he was never threatened, though.

"It helps," he said with a smile, "to be 6-5."

Cougs' Lesuma breath of fresh air

ast updated August 20, 2007 10:47 p.m. PT

By JIM MOORE
P-I COLUMNIST

PULLMAN -- It was raining. It was gloomy. It was flat-out miserable here Sunday afternoon. The Cougars trudged onto their practice field, looking like they didn't want to be there.

Ten minutes later, in a pre-planned move, coach Bill Doba called off practice to give the team a break. The players rejoiced as they ran off the field. But then I noticed a straggler, an awfully big straggler. He wasn't running and wasn't smiling.

"I'm kind of disappointed," said Vaughn Lesuma. "I got here early to get taped and I'm already wet, so let's just do it."

In less than two weeks Lesuma is expected to start his first Division I game, and he knows he needs the work.

"It's all new to me," Lesuma said.

Before arriving in Pullman, I had heard about the problems with the offensive line due to the graduation of two starters and the loss of Andy Roof because he was a three-time violator of WSU's alcohol policy.

There are three returning veterans -- left guard Bobby Byrd, center Kenny Alfred and right guard Dan Rowlands -- but that leaves the tackle spots to untested players such as freshman Micah Hannam and JC transfer Lesuma, neither of whom has played a down for the Cougs.

This is not a good thing, or so I thought. I have no idea how Hannam will do at right tackle, but I suddenly have faith in Lesuma after spending a half-hour with him after Sunday's shortened practice.

If he's pouring the Cougar Kool-Aid this year, I'm drinking it and asking for another cup. Lesuma is as delightful as his story.

On letter-of-intent day, I remember seeing his name on the list of WSU's recruits. Surely this was another Cougar reach, a kid from Fiji. They don't play football in Fiji, but hey, Lesuma played rugby and his high school basketball team won the Fiji national championship.

I was skeptical -- just what the Cougs need, a lineman who has played only two years of football. Maybe he surfed, too; that will really help him in the Palouse.

But then you talk to the kid and find out he's not a kid. Lesuma is 25. Then you find out more about him and decide that you not only want him to succeed but marry your daughter as well. It's not a Pullman pipe dream this time.

"He has a chance to be one of the best (offensive linemen ever at WSU)," said offensive line coach George Yarno. "He's built like a pro football player. He has all the pieces you look for, the size and the athleticism. If he can put it all together, he could be dominating. He's got all the things you want in a player except for experience. Someone who is 330 pounds and can move like him does not come along very often."

In all of his years as a coach, including stints at LSU and ASU, Yarno has never had a junior-college lineman this ready to play in the first game.

And yet the 6-foot-5 Lesuma will say, "It's all new to me."

In Fiji, he wanted to play football but couldn't because no one had a team. He lived in a little town on top of a mountain, about 30 minutes from the beach. After graduating from high school, his parents moved to Hawaii, and Lesuma expressed an interest in playing college football after going on a two-year Mormon mission in California.

He was told he could get exposure if he went to a junior college, so that's what he did, ending up at Mt. San Jacinto in California. Coach Ed Carberry must have liked his size and footwork, but Lesuma was raw. On his first day of practice, his coach talked to him about zone blocking. Lesuma thought: "Zone blocking? I don't even know what a zone is."

"It was like a foreign language," he said.

A good listener and quick learner, Lesuma attracted interest from Oregon State, San Diego State, Nevada, UNLV and Kansas State but chose WSU because of Pullman's small-town family atmosphere that reminded him of home.

He recalls being in Hawaii last Christmas Eve while his buddies played ukuleles until 1 a.m. under a palm tree. A week later he was in Pullman, shivering as he walked across campus to the Cougars' indoor practice field.

"I cannot talk, I cannot enunciate well, I was that frozen," he said. "But if I did that, this is how bad I want this. It didn't faze me. I was excited to be with those guys."

He is more acclimated now, living in an apartment with his younger brother Reed, a backup at right tackle. But it will still take time. He missed spring ball because of a broken wrist.

Lesuma understands Coug-fan concerns about the offensive line and that new guy from the islands.

"I don't blame them," he said. "It's normal to question the unknown."

The Fiji phenom is something else. When he and his brother Reed were at Winger's in Moscow, Idaho, they were served before Doba's dinner arrived. Doba told them to go ahead, but they insisted on waiting until his dinner came.

"I had never seen that before," Doba said.

Lesuma is a devout Mormon who has never had sex or alcohol.

"It's helpful with my focus," Lesuma said. "If I have to worry about all that other stuff, it would be a distraction. It's a critical time right now."

When he laces 'em up on Sept. 1, Lesuma will play in front of more than 82,000 fans at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis. A typical crowd at Mt. San Jacinto games was 200. He thought it was a pretty big deal when 500 people showed up for last Saturday night's scrimmage.

"I was like, whoa!" he said, scanning the Martin Stadium crowd.

The bigger stage is coming, and Lesuma swears he'll be ready.

"Coach Yarno says that being an offensive lineman is a privilege, not a duty," he said. "I want to live up to that honor to the best of my ability. I think I'm going to prove myself. Actually, I know I am."

Joape Pela & Semisi Hoko to play in Silicon Valley Youth Classic

Joape Pela (Mountain View HS) and Semisi Hoko (Los Altos HS) have been selected to the North Roster for the Silicon Valley Youth Classic to be played on July 18th at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, CA. Playing for the South team will be Moni Leulu of Overfelt HS (San Jose) and of Jacob Timoteo III Gunderson HS (San Jose).

Super Bowl XLI

Peyton Manning finally got his first Super Bowl and has kicked his critics to the side in leading the Indianapolis Colts to the win over Chicago 29-17. More importantly, Coach Tony Dungy became the first African-American Head Coach in the NFL to win the Super Bowl. Hopefully this means continued opportunities for African-Americans and other minorities to coach in the NFL and perhaps in the Plantation system which we call the NCAA. There are only 5 minority head coaches out of the 119 teams in Division I.

In addition, Indianapolis Colts' Linebacker Freddy Keiaho (pictured left) may have become the first Fijian to win a Super Bowl ring. Keiaho primarily played on special teams for the Colts. American Samoa native Gabe Reid fumbled a squib kick to him. Chicago All Pro Center Olin Kreutz helped Bears' running back Thomas Jones rush for 112 yards on 15 carries. Kreutz , a St Louis High School graduate will return home to Honolulu to play in the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium this Saturday. Kreutz was named to his 6th Pro Bowl. Other Polynesians at this year's Pro Bowl include Seattle linebacker Lofa Tatupu and Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu.

Freddie Keiaho first Fijian to play in the Super Bowl

Aztecs' Keiaho big hitter with Colts

He'll be first from Fiji to play in Super Bowl

By Jerry Magee
STAFF WRITER

February 1, 2007

MIAMI – Fiji. Think of a magic island, the ocean lapping at its shores, palm trees waving in the breezes wafting in off the Pacific and the most languorous of lifestyles.

Now think of Freddie Keiaho, hitting ball carriers with enough gusto to rearrange the bars on the face mask of his Indianapolis Colts headgear.

The images might not seem compatible, but Keiaho, a native of Fiji who was schooled at San Diego State, is making them so. In Sunday's Super Bowl XLI, he is to become the first Fijian to play in one of these things.

“That's something to be proud of,” Keiaho said yesterday.

How he has conducted himself through his rookie season with the Colts also is something he can value. Said Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz: “He hasn't played all that much because there are concerns he won't always be in the right place, but when he has, he has just blown guys up. They like him.”

Said Rob Morris, the linebacker whose arrival on the strong side of the Indianapolis defense has had a strong bearing on the team being where it is:

“Freddie is not afraid to hit. He's not shy.”

At one point this season, Keiaho said Colts equipment managers inspected his headgear and found the bars had become separated because of the concussive blows he had been delivering. The man leads with his face when he is making a tackle.

“And I try to get my hips under me,” he said. As he did in one instance that sticks in his mind and likely in Kevin Faulk's mind, since it was the New England running back he hit.

Faulk went slack. “Yeah,” Keiaho said, “when you make a big hit, you feel 'em kind of go weightless. You feel you have control over 'em.”

Keiaho also put a thunderous shot on Larry Johnson while the Colts were eliminating the Kansas City Chiefs in a wild-card game. “But he's a lot bigger than Faulk, so I didn't get him as weightless as I wanted,” he said.

On Sunday, if you're looking for Keiaho, look for his No. 54 on special teams and aligning as an outside linebacker in the Colts' goal-line defense. He would be the 5-foot-11, 226-pounder laying the big hits.

Like many of Tony Dungy's defenders, Keiaho is a speed player who said he has run 4.5s. “You can be a big linebacker, you can be a big safety, but if you can't strike, it doesn't help,” he said.

“Strike” is a word one hears frequently around the Colts. It's what they do. They “strike.” Only Keiaho wasn't doing any striking through the preseason, much of which he had to sit out after suffering a knee injury.

Before being hurt, however, Keiaho had shown the Colts enough that there never was any question the third-round draft pick would make the club, even though he was disappointed in how he performed at the scouting combine.

The Colts, according to Keiaho, admired his ability to play faster than his times would suggest. He further believes he received sound grounding as a linebacker from his SDSU position coach, Andy Buh, now at Stanford.

“Probably the best linebacker coach in the country,” Keiaho said, ticking off the names of other linebackers who have gone from SDSU to success in the NFL. Kirk Morrison of the Raiders. Matt McCoy of the Eagles. Heath Farwell of the Vikings.

Keiaho came to the mainland with his parents when he was 2. The family settled in El Cajon. It later would move to Ventura. At 11, Keiaho returned to Fiji to live with a stepfather until he was 13.

Outside the Fort Lauderdale hotel where the Colts are quartered this week were the waters of the Atlantic. “It's great for me to see water again,” Keiaho said. “I hadn't seen it for six months.”

He has seen snow.

“I'm not used to shoveling,” he acknowledged. But in Indianapolis he has been able to purchase a four-bedroom home for a fraction of what it would have cost in San Diego.

“I couldn't have bought a closet for the same price in San Diego,” he said.

Life in Indianapolis does have its advantages, Keiaho has found.

“You can find a parking place without driving around for 20 minutes,” he said.

---

Jerry Magee: (619) 293-1830; jerry.magee@uniontrib.com

All Daily News Football News Team

The Daily News which includes which includes it's Burlingame, East Bay, Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Mateo daily papers. A large contingent of Samoans, Tongans, and other islanders were selected to the post season team.

1st Team
DT - Josh Afungia, M-A (Jr.)
TE - Rhett Ellison, St. Francis (Sr.)
C - Ty Famuumu, Aragon (Jr.)
LB - Sinosaia Haatoa, M-A (Sr.)
G - Chris Havili, Aragon (Sr.)
G - Fred Koloto, Palo Alto (Sr.)
DE - Latani Moimoi, M-A (Jr.)
RB - Seta Pohahau, Aragon (Jr.)
DT - Paul Tuiono, Woodside (Sr.)
S - Tiuke Tuipulotu, Serra (Jr.)

2nd Team
RB - Sione Mataele, Palo Alto (Jr.)
NT - Joape Pela, Mt. View (Sr.)
QB - Matt Pelesasa, Woodside (Sr.)
RB - Lopeti Taufoou, Woodside (Sr.)
LB - Blue Tuufuli, Los Altos (Jr.)

Honorable Mention
Kelvin Asaeli (Capuchino HS, San Bruno, CA)
Ben Naufahu (San Mateo HS)
Martin Tauolo (Aragon HS, San Mateo, CA)
Josh Uikiufi (Mills HS, Millbrae, CA)
Raymond Vainikolo (Menlo-Atherton HS)

Note: Selections were based on all-league teams, success in league and postseason play, strength of competition, coaches' recommendations and writers' observances. Teams were limited to a maximum of three honorable mentions. Players must play at least 75 percent of their respective team's games to be eligible and must be on a team in the Daily News coverage area, which stretches through most of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Mt San Jacinto OL Vaughn Lesuma verbals to Washington State

Mt San Jacinto College Offensive Lineman Vaughn Lesuma has verballed to play football at Washington State. Lesuma was a First Team All Football Conference selection this season.

Lesuma coming for Apple Cup
dam Munsterteiger

When Vaughn Lesuma signs a letter of intent with a Division-1 football program, he will have taken a strange path. Lesuma went to high school in Fiji, where Rugby is played instead of football. He had never strapped on a helmet until his freshman year at Mt. San Jacinto College in California.

Lesuma has three more official visits lined up.

Standing a mammoth 6-foot-5, 345-pounds, Lesuma was more than ready for football physically. But the mental side of the game took some time for him to adjust to.

"When I first came in, they told us we are going to zone block here," Lesuma recalls. "I had no idea what a zone block was. I didn't even know how to count off the linebackers and the cornerbacks. The hardest thing was just learning the terminology of football. I started from literally nothing.

"I would go in the coaches' office every day that I could, on my own time to work with the coaches. I started from the beginning and because of that I developed a lot quicker. It turned out to be a worthwhile investment for me. It definitely paid off in the end."

Lesuma received his first written from Oregon State and he visited Corvallis back in October. Because he is a December graduate, Lesuma will be able to sign his letter of intent as early as December 20th.

While the Beavers made a strong impression on him, Lesuma plans to take at least three more trips.

"I leave this Friday to go to Washington State," he said. "Then the weekend after Thanksgiving, I go to New Mexico State (Dec. 1st) and then the following weekend I go to San Diego State (Dec. 8th).

"Those four schools have been the most interested in me. There are a few others that have called but those four really put the foot down and said they really wanted me to come out for a trip. Iowa State had offered me a full scholarship earlier but I haven't heard that much from them recently."

What are Lesuma's impressions of Washington State going into his trip to Pullman this weekend?

"I'm pretty excited about my trip to Washington State and I am very fortunate to visit there for the Apple Cup," he expressed. "That is going to be a great experience for me. I'm looking forward to getting answers to some of my questions. I want to see the atmosphere, the spirit of the program.

"A big factor for me is going to be finding the right fit, being comfortable. It's a small town out there (Pullman) and I like that. That is one of the things I want in the college I choose, I want the team to be very family oriented and I'd really like the whole community to be family oriented as well.

"I've heard from my coaches and friends that Washington State has excellent coaches. I've heard it's a great program and that's why I am really looking forward to seeing what they have to offer."

Vaughn's younger brother Reed Lesuma is a prospect you'll undoubtedly hear about next year. The 6-foot-4, 305-pound lineman played as a freshman at Mt. San Jacinto College this fall.