PROVO — BYU football Coach Kalani Sitake has always held a great measure of belief in Cougar running back Zach Katoa and the feeling is absolutely mutual.
One of the first moves Sitake made after becoming the defensive coordinator at Oregon State back in 2015 was offering Katoa a scholarship. At the time the American Fork star running back was set to sign with Utah State, with National Letter of Intent Day closing in fast, until a late-minute official trip to Corvallis and an instant reconnection with Sitake changed everything.
Katoa opted to serve an LDS Church mission to Independence, Missouri upon graduation, with Sitake taking the head coaching reins at BYU prior to the 2016 season.
“You hear about things a bit while out on a mission, and yeah, I was obviously excited when I heard Kalani was in the running to be coach at BYU,” Katoa recalled. “The possibility of staying close to my family — it’s huge. So when I heard he was finally coming to BYU I wanted to get here, no matter what.”
Also out on an LDS Church mission was Katoa’s close friend and high school teammate James Empey, who was serving in Portugal at the time. Empey signed with Utah out of high school, but with his father, Mike Empey, being hired out as part of BYU’s new offensive staff, the odds were strongly in favor of him joining Katoa in Provo.
“I don’t know who actually made the decision first, but I do remember sending just one email and asking him if he felt it. He did, and it was pretty obvious to both of us, I think, that we’d end up at BYU after our missions,” Katoa said.
The two former teammates returned just prior to the 2017 season and spent the year redshirting while taking their lumps on the scout team. For Katoa, he loved the opportunity to go against the first-team defense every day and feels he progressed a lot through the process.
“It was a great experience,” the 6-foot-1, 205-pound running back said. “You’re obviously not where you want to be, coming home just a couple of months before the season, so it really helped to get me going and I learned a lot that first year.”
With his scout team work behind him, Katoa took to the practice field primed to make an impact during spring practices and didn’t disappoint. He quickly rose to be considered a viable option to start at running back this coming season, competing with veterans such as Squally Canada and KJ Hall for the spot, among others.
Should he earn the starting spot during the fall practice session he feels equal to the task, after shouldering a tremendous amount of the offensive work when playing for the Cavemen.
“I feel confident I can do it, but there's a lot of guys I'm competing with who I feel could get it done, as well," Katoa said. "Squally, KJ and we have a lot of others who are competing hard. We'll see how it works out and all I can do is work as hard as I can and then let coaches work it out."
Katoa's main focus is to work to help out as much as possible given any role he's assigned.
"It's all about the team and that's everyone's focus," he said. "We're blessed to be here at BYU and have the opportunity to really help the offense. We need to improve things a lot and I feel we have the guys to get it done this year."