By the time high school-age boys try out for football in most American cities and towns, they’ve had football experience since eight years old in the youth leagues (see Grid-iron Analysis 1).
They would toil in the JV (Junior Varsity) squad starting from their freshman year (Grade 9). They could be called up to the Varsity Team (academically qualified) in their sophomore year (10th Grade), or their junior year (11th Grade). But most do make up the core of the Varsity Team in their senior year (12th Grade).
The high school competition between certain cross-town and cross-state rivalries is serious stuff. Graduating from youth football to high school football is the “initiation” process of the American male from boyhood into manhood. And the entire family clan shows up at every Friday night game to cheer their team to victory.
Boys can choose to play high school basketball, soccer, baseball, swimming, volleyball, or run cross country. But to real tough American boys, those sports are for girls. To be a man in America, the boy needs to “letter” in football. When he actually played in 75% of their school team’s scheduled games, he joins the elite players who would receive a “Letter Jacket”. It’s a real expensive sports jacket in the school’s color, and an embroidered capital letter (usually the first letter of the school name) insignia on the chest, over the heart.
Polynesian Football Boys Dominate
Polynesian boys: Tongan. Sāmoan, and Hawaiian boys do dominate high school football teams in communities of rich Polynesian cultures. Hawai‘i, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, and Washington are the most fertile grounds for great Polynesian football players.
To illustrate, East High School (Salt Lake City, Utah) is one of the largest high schools in Utah. Half of the school’s 60-member varsity football team are Polynesian players. However, there are only about 50,000 Polynesians living among the 3,000,000 dominantly Utah’s white population.
Besides their in-state domineering history in Utah, East High often plays against cross state rivalries. Hawaii’s domineering Kahuku High School football (all Tongan and Sāmoan players) is an annual rivalry battle. A week ago, East High traveled to Concord, California, and defeated (25-23) another inter-state rival, a nationally ranked all-boys Catholic De La Salle High School.
Such football standouts on this year’s team include Suesue, Fonua, Kaufusi, Heimuli, Nu‘usa, Folou, Teisina, Molisi, Maea…Many of them are good enough to receive football scholarship offers from university programs such as University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), UC Berkeley, University of Oregon, Washington State University, Arizona State University, University of Utah or Brigham Young University.
((Photo by East High School, article by Sione A. Mokofisi, a syndicated journalist living in Tonga. He travels often to his adopted country, USA, to visit families and complete post-graduate doctoral studies. He is editor of www.Niuvākai.news, also a bi-lingual print publication based in Nuku‘alofa, Tonga. But his opinions do not reflect the editorial policy of this Website.)