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.
Reach the
reporter at sports@samoanews.com.
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