Recap of Samoa Trip

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June Jones academy hosts clinics, awards scholarships

by Brian Vitolio

A little more than 300 local high school football players attended the inaugural June Jones American Samoa Football Academy last Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, going through a good number of drills as a whole before breaking up into their individual drills.

Five, $2,000 scholarships provided by the June Jones Foundation were awarded by local DOE's Donna Gurr at the end of the academy. Two of them went to Tafuna High School's Timothy Manuma and Fa'afetai Te'o while the other three went to Ne'emia Vitale (Leone High School), Kurt Taufa'asau (Samoana High School) and Travis Asaeli (Faga'itua High School).

Gurr told the players that the scholarship money - which June Jones said is more "academic" than athletic based - will be forwarded to each of their respective schools.

Timothy Manuma will attend San Jose City College in California; Fa'afetai Te'o will go to New Mexico Military Institute in New Mexico; Ne'emia Vitale will attend Los Angeles Valley College in California; Kurt Taufa'asau is also heading to New Mexico Military Institute while Asaeli will be at Eastern Arizona in Arizona. Asaeli and Vitale were not on hand to receive their scholarships because they departed the island last Thursday. Their fathers were at Veterans Stadium to receive accept the scholarships from June Jones.

The June Jones Foundation also helped bring down boxes and boxes of medical supplies that its CEO Kevin Kaplan officially handed to Acting Governor Faoa Aitofele Sunia during a courtesy visit to the Governor's Office last Friday.

June Jones, head coach of SMU, came with four assistants as well as head coach of Hawaii Greg McMackin, also coming with four assistants along with former Samoan NFL players Jesse Sapolu (San Francisco 49ers) and Ma'a Tanuvasa (Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers) and current Samoan NFL players Melila Purcell (Cleveland Browns), Paul Soliai (Miami Dolphins) and Regan Maui'a (Dolphins).

The June Jones American Samoa Football Academy was a one-day affair with a coaches' session in the morning last Saturday from 9-11:30 and then a session with the players from 1:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon.

Samoana and Leone brought the most players to the academy with 75 and 70, respectively, while the Nu'uuli Voc-Tech Wildcats had 63, Faga'itua and Tafuna with 50+ and Fa'asao/Marist brought 42.

Several drills were held with the entire group of players participating in it and they were lackadaisical at first with their output, but after a stern admonishment from Frank Gansz Sr. (SMU special teams coach), the players started to be snappier and more serious with their responses to the drills.

After the group session, the players were broken up into their positions with the respective coaches, e.g., Hawaii quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich took the quarterbacks, Jeff Reinebold (SMU wide receivers coach) and Craig Stutzmann (former Hawaii wide receiver and current graduate assistant on McMackin's staff) took the receivers, Gansz went with the kickers and punters and McMackin dealt with the defensive backs.

The players' session ended with each school shouting out their school's name and even Purcell got into the act when he joined his alma mater, Leone, during their haka to close it out.

Jones, Tanuvasa and Sapolu spoke briefly to the players before the academy officially ended.

Jones told the players "hopefully, it's going to be bigger and better next year."

Tanuvasa told them that they have one thing players in Hawaii or the mainland do not often have, and that's respect for their coaches. He said if they listen to their coaches, they will go a long way in their football careers as he did. There was a respectful silence from the players while Tanuvasa spoke, and he told them that this would not be possible if a coach were to speak to a large group of players in Hawaii.

Tanuvasa played for and won two Super Bowls with the Broncos. He also played for the Chargers.

Jesse Sapolu, who won four Super Bowls while spending his entire career with the 49ers, told the players that back in his playing days, you would hear on ESPN about players getting in off-the-field problems once in a while, but nowadays it's almost everyday that you hear that.

To avoid such problems, he said the players must have strong belief in their culture and their respect for elders.

"A lot of college coaches love Polynesian players because they're very respectful," he said. "And that goes back to their culture and family-oriented society."

He told them sternly, to not "disrespect the culture."

One theme that these three, and every single coach that came with the group, kept pointing out to the players is to do well in the classroom. To get to where some of these players have been, education is the key they said.

"Back in my day you could get away with it," Jones told the players. "But now, you can't with all the test you have to take such as the SAT."

Jones handed out some appreciation plaques to some of the local people who helped this inaugural football academy occur such as Motu Seui Jr. of the Governor's Office, Bill Maxi (president) and the Pago Pago Rotary Club, GHC Reid president Olivia Reid-Gillette, Blue Sky Communications' COO Li'a Tufele Jr. and Samoa Bowl committee members Melila Sr. and Moana Purcell. The Purcells were also given two helmets, one belonging to the Hawaii Warriors and the other to the SMU Mustangs.

Taken from: http://www.samoanews.com/tuesday.07012008/story17.html

[giacfsp]

Nice piece. Thanks for posting that.