MAKAWAO, Hawaii — Netane Savou and his wife Sulieti are perched in a vendor booth displaying fruits and vegetables at Saturday’s Upcountry Farmers Market on Maui. They are Tongans who farm 30 acres on the island of Maui and have sons who play football, and they intend to send them to Provo for BYU’s summer camp next month.
They are well aware of Kalani Sitake, the first Tongan to be named an FBS head coach. When his name is mentioned, they smile even wider. They know his staff. Tales of what Sitake has been trying to do the past four months have reached the Savou family through the coconut wireless and social media. They are longtime friends with former Maui resident Jack Damuni, whom Sitake named director of player personnel for the Cougars.
On Maui, this next crop of sugar cane is the last one ever in an industry that has sustained generations of immigrants from China, Japan and the Phillipines, as well as native Hawaiians. It simply isn’t profitable anymore.
But speaking of harvests, the Savou family is a symbol of Sitake’s plan to create a family atmosphere, a welcome mat to BYU football, building on the successes of Bronco Mendenhall, spreading the brand. Part of it is the announcement Tuesday of a team fireside schedule that will take coaches and players from Arizona to Hawaii and to Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, California, Washington, D.C., and Sandy.
Familiarity is a tool. And like Mendenhall, Sitake will stoke that engine by using LDS Church ties.
Netane Savou has high praise for what he is familiar with, and he knows Danumi, who worked at the Baldwin School in Maui. Damuni cannot recruit off campus, but it does put his Rolodex into play.
It is way too early to determine if Savou’s kids will be recruited or even offered by major colleges, including BYU. But their size, strength and growing prowess and skills is a foundation. And they are in a universe Sitake has to conquer in coming years. He cannot afford to not be acquainted with LDS prospects wherever they live. And he’s motivated to find them.
“Jack Damuni helped start a ‘Big Boy League’ about five years ago in Maui,” said Savou. His sons, 16-year old Antonio and 12-year old Steve, have participated.
“The Pop Warner program had restrictions on size of kids who could participate. The Big Boy League was created to give those kids from fourth to the eighth grade who didn’t make the weight restrictions an opportunity to play. It also fit with LDS Church members because it didn’t hold games on Sunday. It has grown immensely and become very popular in Maui and it has spread to Oahu. I’d say there are 800 to 900 kids participating in the Big Boy League now," he said.
“It has grown so much there is a team in almost every town in Maui and five teams in Oahu. It is really, really big.”
Savou said Sitake hiring Damuni is a big asset to BYU. “He has a great personality alone. He has a great character and is easy to get along with. In all the years I’ve known him, he gets along great with kids and adults. I believe he will do good for BYU.”
I met Savou in this market that day by simply asking him about manioke, a root popular among Tongans. Total strangers, within two minutes our conversation turned from Tonga to the LDS faith and then BYU football and Sitake and Damuni.
Back in December, Alema Te’o, director of the popular Poly Football Camp, predicted the hire of Sitake by BYU would be a game changer in terms of relations with the Polynesian community.
The past four months, Te’o says he has seen some of that come to fruition.
“To me, his impact in the Polynesian community is that he’s drawn people to him. There is a little more of a friendly atmosphere down there and it is very attractive to many in the community. The fact is Kalani is well-connected and he’s a guy people have always been able to embrace and get to know quickly — even when he was an assistant coach working his way up.
“He is a ground-level guy and that is very attractive. To me, all he needs is experience with some first-year guys who will be baptized by fire. But I think they are up to the task. I can’t guarantee a successful season this year with that tough schedule, but whatever happens, he’s going to build on it in years to come. I’m just excited to see how it all works out.”
Sitake’s familiarity program? It was there that Saturday at a vendor’s booth, way out in the Maui hill country, behind a table lined with dried bananas, papaya and manioke manned by Tongans with pearl white smiles.
EMAIL: dharmon@deseretnews.com.
TWITTER: Harmonwrites