Raider Damuni couldn’t believe his own eyes.
The junior safety was holding down his spot on the field in the first quarter when Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbransen cocked his arm and threw a pass right at him.
“My eyes just got huge,” Damuni said. “He is really throwing this to me right here?”
The third-down pass from the Cardinal 32-yard line landed in Damuni’s arms at the 44 and the former Timpview High star raced 26 yards to the 18 to set up a Will Ferrin field goal. To his surprise, while the crowd of 64,692 erupted, Damuni ran in silence.
“In the moment, you don’t even notice the crowd. I don’t know how to explain it,” Damuni said. “When I got to the sideline it was loud. There is no better feeling than that.”
The interception and all the big plays that followed during BYU’s fast-and-furious 12-2 season helped alter Damuni’s approach for his senior year.
“One thing I want to do this season, and every time I play, is embrace (the moment),” he said. “You are so rushed and amped up that you don’t get to embrace that.”
Bigger and faster
With Tanner Wall graduated, Damuni’s role in the BYU secondary will be bigger this fall and so will his frame.
“They wanted me to gain a little weight in the offseason. I’m a little bigger than I was in the fall, but I’m faster than I was, too,” said Damuni, who suited up at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds last season. “The strength staff has done a good job to help me put on more mass while increasing my speed.”
Damuni and Faletau Satuala (Bountiful) represent BYU’s last line of defense at the safety positions. Last year, while playing under Wall’s supervision, the two Utah kids combined for 127 tackles, including eight tackles for loss, six pass breakups and four interceptions.
Promoting education
Just like his head coach, Damuni served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Oakland, California, where he spoke Tongan. This summer, Sitake, Damuni and several others will travel to Tonga to advance the cause of BYU-Pathway Worldwide.
“Serving among the Tongan people and being able to go back and help them, and the BYU-Pathway program — with the vision they have,” Damuni said. “I’m super excited about that opportunity.”
Sitake and his football program aligned with BYU-Pathway Worldwide to promote and provide educational opportunities throughout the world, including Nuku’alofa, Tonga, where Sitake was born.
“Being able to give them an opportunity to get an education and be able to stay in their homeland and make a living over there — that is huge for them,” Damuni said. “It’s a blessing that they have been waiting for their whole life. I think being able to go over there and help is a huge thing.”
Talking Tongan
When BYU hired Sitake in 2016, he became the first college head coach of Tongan descent. Last year, in addition to being named Big 12 Coach of the Year, Sitake was inducted into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.
Even though Damuni and Sitake both speak Tongan, the player-to-coach verbiage is always in English. That is not the case for Damuni and Sitake’s father, Tom.
“Not really with Kalani, but Pops, his dad, whenever I see Pops, me and Pops are always talking Tongan,” Damuni said.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.