Ex-Cal Star Alualu Plans To Build Church

Former Cal standout Tyson Alualu, who was a first-round draft pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, agreed to a contract that ended his holdout, and he had his first practice with the Jaguars on Tuesday.

Alualu agreed to a five-year contract worth a total of $28 million, about $17.5 million of which is guaranteed.   He took an overnight flight from his home in Honolulu on Monday and arrived in Jacksonville Tuesday morning.  He practiced with the team Tuesday night after missing five days of practice, which included seven workouts.

The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville reported that Alualu, who is deeply religious, plans to finance the building of a new church for his father's congregation, about a minute’s walk from where Alualu grew up in a Honolulu housing project.

“I’m going to use it to help my family, my parents and also the community,” Alualu told the Florida Times-Union.   “Building a church, which is important for me, so that others can have the opportunity to worship God.”

Alualu was the 10th overall selection in this year's draft, and he will be given a chance to be a starting defensive tackle as a rookie.

Full Article

Alualu Humble In Arrival

Tyson Alualu’s humble beginnings made it easy for him to accept the insult that he was a reach-pick draft choice. He made it sound as though he welcomes the rebuke.

“It was a shock to my people, my family and me. I was hoping to go late-first. I was projected as a solid second-round pick,” Alualu told reporters on Friday, a few hours after arriving in Jacksonville and ending a journey that begin at four p.m. on Thursday in Hawaii.

The Jaguars’ first-round draft choice is a warm and friendly man who spoke to reporters openly about his energy for the game and his love of family and faith.

“Moving from shelter to shelter, not having the finer things in life; I want to have this opportunity to give back to my family,” Alualu said.

Jaguars guard Vince Manuwai talked last week of knowing Alualu from their days growing up in the Honolulu projects. Alualu lived in three shelters.

“I know him from growing up as a kid. We’re from the same neighborhood,” Manuwai said.

The neighborhood is known as KPT, which is short for Kuhio Park Terrace. Manuwai did not describe it in pleasant terms.

“I know his parents were very guarded. His dad runs security there. I know they fussed on him. They did a great job and he’s at the next level,” Manuwai said of Alualu.

Soon, Alualu will sign a rich contract that’ll guarantee no one in his family will ever again live in a shelter. Good times have arrived for someone who has been described by Jaguars General Manager Gene Smith and Head Coach Jack Del Rio as a good guy.

“I’m here to work hard,” Alualu said. “Most teams talk about my passion for the game. I don’t tell them. They say they see it.”

Smith very clearly saw it and fell in love with it. Alualu’s passion caused him to soar up the Jaguars’ draft board, though he was unaware of it. He considered Dallas, New England and Denver to be the three teams most interested in drafting him.

When he was selected with the 10th overall pick, draft guru Mel Kiper immediately criticized the pick for being a reach. Smith said it wasn’t a reach according to the Jaguars’ draft rankings, as Alualu was the best available player on the Jaguars’ board.

All of that and the flap about the Jaguars not using the pick on favorite-son Tim Tebow is in the past. What’s ahead, beginning with this weekend’s mini-camp, is about what Alualu does on the field.

With the Jaguars, he’ll be a featured player, which he wasn’t at Cal. Gone are his days as a read-and-react defensive end in a 3-4 scheme. With the Jaguars, Alualu will be used as a penetrating, disruptive, three-technique defensive tackle.

“I’m definitely excited about that, not reading so much but just exploding and getting after it; penetrating and getting into to the backfield. I can’t wait to get started,” he said.

Gone, also, are his days of wearing number 44, the family number, as he called it. He’ll wear number 93 with the Jaguars.

“My wife and our two kids are really excited about making Jacksonville our new home,” he said.

“You watch him since high school and, all of a sudden, you’re playing with him,” Manuwai added.

Alualu’s was a very long journey.

Full Article

Manuwai on Alualu

G Vince Manuwai's comments on first round pick Tyson Alualu

(what do you think of having another player here from Hawaii?) “It’s great. It’s not only that he’s from Hawaii but I actually know him personally and his family and friends that married into the family, and I saw him growing up as a little kid. Like I said not only him being from Hawaii but I know him personally and we’re from the same neighborhood.”

(where was the neighborhood?) “We lived in the projects called Kuhio Park Terrace, KPT for short.”
(is this in Honolulu?) “Yeah it’s in Honolulu, in Kali’i.”

(they have projects in Honolulu?) “Yeah.”

(what can you tell us about him and about growing up in KPT?) “I never saw him play or anything but I know watching him as a little kid I know his parents were real guarded. He was probably the only boy maybe or two, but I would see him out but every time I would see him he was always getting ready for football practice or training so he was never hanging around outside of the projects. I know his dad runs maybe security there so there was a lot that he could even if he left the house as far as getting into the gangs or whatever. So I know they were really focused on him, making sure he was getting his sports done and all that and it shows they did a great job and he’s at the next level being a top-10 pick.”

(how old were you when you first met him?) “I was in high school and I know he was in elementary going through the Pop Warner stages, but my fondest memory remembering was always getting ready to practice. I know his dad would always take him. He was known in KPT to always do football and that’s the only thing he focused on.”

(what was your feeling yesterday when you saw the reaction of the local fans being aghast at this pick because they didn’t know who is was and there was so much criticism of this pick?) “I guess when you get the media attention, you know how that is, they’re talking about so much about a lot of players and they’ve never heard of Tyson Alualu and all of a sudden you draft him and then people get shocked. Gene Smith, it’s his job. They did a great job of drafting last year and doing a great job this year drafting. It’s tough I guess, but a lot of it is because of the media attention. If they were talking about Tyson Alualu the whole time, would they have been more shocked? Probably not but they’re just shocked because I guess he never had a lot of media attention. But on Gene Smith’s board there was availability I guess, and they liked the way he played and his motor knowing he can come in and do some things.”

(what do you think the reaction will be after fans see him play?) “He has work on his shoulders and what he has to do to come in here and play in that top ten pick. I know he was probably top five in the D-tackles so after the first two guys, pretty much the last three in the top five that’s when you start breaking down, is he a character guy? So to me it doesn’t separate them, so for Gene to draft him that was the best decision.”

(he’ll have to always live with that stigma of ‘he was the guy they drafted instead of Tim Tebow;’ is that unfair?) “In my mind they weren’t going to take Tebow. So unless they traded up somewhere around the top five but I didn’t think at the 10th pick they were going to take Tebow. With Alualu at a young age, helping out with Big John (Henderson), Terrance Knighton, he’s going to come in and help them plug up some holes and get some sacks, crash the pocket.”

Tyson Alualu: Del Rio & Gene Smith Discuss 1st Rnd Pick
Uploaded by Jodatoa. - Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.

(will you help him get acclimated to Jacksonville and explain this Tebow thing to him?) “Oh, definitely. I never thought they would have taken him at the 10th pick for Tebow. I guess they’re more used to Alualu playing more I guess, but that’s not my job. I just hope he knows what’s on his shoulders. I know that he’s a hard worker. I’d seen him as a kid. He never spoke a lot, just did what he was supposed to, what his parents told him to do and that’s what he’s been doing. I went to school with his sisters. They’re a couple years younger, two of them. I never saw him as a kid that walked around and had a big chest or nothing. He just played; a real quite kid.”

(do you think he knows what is on his shoulders with the Tebow stuff?) “No, I don’t think he’s even worried about. He got drafted and now he knows what he’s got to do to come in and start working hard and get into that playbook, like they say as a rookie, get your contract done and that’s probably what he’s worried about. He can’t control the Tebow situation.”

(why do you think there are so many Samoans doing well in the NFL?) “I don’t know. I guess as years go by you learn and learn more about it. I guess it’s one of those things that you can’t get enough now. Some of them realizing I guess what you can do more of. My years, I watching the Noga brothers, Jesse Sapolu. It’s just one of those you just start picking up on it. You’ve got more things now in high school and college. Coming out of high school I never had clinics and now you got so many clinics you can go to and develop your talents a lot faster. Back then a lot of Samoans couldn’t pay for clinics or work with somebody. Now maybe a lot of the Samoans are giving back. I remember Troy (Polamalu), Chris Fuamatu Ma’afala back in Hawaii were doing clinics. Now we’ve drafted Tyson maybe I’ll talk to him about going back to our old neighborhood and doing some clinics.”

(does Chris Fuamatu Ma’afala know Alualu?) “No. Fu grew up in a different projects. Me and Tyson grew up in the same projects.”

(did they go to the same high school?) “No, he went to a different high school. He went to St. Louis where Jimmy Chang went, our quarterback, back in the University of Hawaii.”

(Alualu went to St. Louis High School with Olin Kreutz) “And Fu. Fu went to St. Louis also.”

(anybody else come out of the high school that you know of?) “Dominic Raiola, Olin Kreutz.”

(on it being a big time high school) “Yeah. They won 13 prep state champions in a row.”

(did you go to St. Louis or a different high school?) “No, I went to a different high school. It was about 10 minutes away. I had the possibility but I went to public high school.”

(when he gets here, what will you tell him?) “Just tell him congratulations. We’re making our people proud. It’s weird, like I said, you watch him from when you’re in high school and then all of a sudden you’re playing with him now. It’s different. You see him as a little kid but now I can’t see him as a little kid, he’s a grown man now. So definitely come in and just say hey, just hit the books and don’t try to do too much so fast. There’s a lot of pressure of course with being a top 10 pick, but try not to let it eat away at him. Sometimes when they come in that young they end up burning out but I know work ethic since he was a kid. He’s a hard worker. That’s one thing I know Gene loves about him is his character and maybe that separates the last three D-tackles they had was the character issue. That’s one of the things they wanted to clean up was the character issues and that’s definitely why they probably went with him. And Gene likes his motor. Just coming in and just say, ‘Hey man, just do your job. I was a rookie.’ And some things we’ll talk about later I guess. I’ll give him my phone number also and say, ‘Hey, give me a call.’ “

(is there a big Samoan population in Hawaii?) “Yeah, real big. A lot of people are telling me, ‘Oh, another Hawaiian person.’ But a lot of times they tend to forget. See, I’m Hawaiian-Samoan. He’s just full Samoan so a lot of them tend to forget that when they come from Hawaii they assume he’s another Hawaiian person. So I have to correct a lot of them. People ask, ‘what’s the difference?’ I say there’s Hawaii and there’s Samoa. So I tell them no, he’s Samoan. They say, ‘Is there a difference?’ I say ‘No, he’s a great kid. Hawaiians and Samoans are pretty much the same as far as mannerism and stuff.’ You guys get to see when he comes in. He’s a quiet kid, kind of shy but I know when he steps on the football field there’s something that turns in him. That’s pretty much what I know about him.”

(you mentioned you’re Hawaiian-Samoan. Does that mean one of your parents is Hawaiian and both his parents are Samoan? Is that the difference?) “Yeah. My mom is half Hawaiian, half Samoan. My dad was three-quarter Samoan and a quarter white. Where we lived in the projects there are more population of Samoans.”

Full Article

Getting to Know Vince Manuwai

Seventh-year pro Vince Manuwai (pictured) sat down with jaguars.com to discuss his favorite food, the position he would play if he didn’t weigh 300-plus pounds and how he uses a saying in Hawaii to keep him motivated.

What is your favorite TV show?

CSI. I like the suspense and trying to figure out who did the crime.

Favorite meal?

Eggs. I can eat eggs for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

How do you like your eggs?

Sometimes I eat them over easy, sometimes scrambled.

What is a talent you wish you had?

Probably singing.

What was your first job?

I sold newspapers when I was in the eight-to-ten year-old range.

What did it pay?

Back then a newspaper cost about 35 cents so I made about seven cents on the paper plus tips.

Pet peeves?

I don’t like it when people say they’re going to do something and they don’t do it.

Who is the most influential person in your life?

My uncle. He supported me in everything I did and always gave me things I needed. He was one of those guys where if I asked for something, he’d give me whatever I needed, no questions asked. He was the only one who came to all of my high school games, college games and he comes to my NFL games. I learned how to succeed from him.

What other position would you want to play?

Probably D-line because of my size.

What if size wasn’t an issue?

Running back or safety.

What kind of an animal would you be?

A tiger.

What do you want to do after you’re done playing football?

Coach high school football. Coaching college or NFL would be tough with all of the travel.

Do you want to go back to Hawaii to coach high school?

Definitely. And coaching high school would allow me to be part of my kids’ lives more. I don’t want to put them through the lifestyle of coaching in college or the NFL. High school gives you more time. It isn’t a grueling schedule where you have to watch a bunch of film and go recruiting. I also want to watch my kids and see how they develop.

What is your motto?

One thing they say in Hawaii is, ‘Eddie would go.’ (Eddie Aikau) is the big-time surfer there. He used to surf the big waves, like 35 to 40 feet waves. Every time he surfed, one of the other surfers would say, ‘Eddie would go’ because he always went up against the big waves. When they use that saying, no matter how big the challenge is, you can do it. If I have to block someone that made it to the Pro Bowl for like nine straight years, I say ‘Eddie would go.’

Full Article

Pola Has Inspiring Story

RB Coach Seized Opportunity

His birth date is etched in American history. Kennedy Pola’s father heard the news, felt the heartache and instantly new what to name his newborn son.

“The nurse came in and said President Kennedy had just been killed,” Pola said of the story of his entrance into the world, on Nov. 22, 1963, in American Samoa.

Pola hopes his Jaguars running backs will author an exciting story this coming season, but the story of how Pola got from there to here is a fascinating read. It begins with an arrangement by Pola’s parents to move Kennedy and his younger brother, Aoatoa, to Los Angeles when Kennedy was a mere 14-year-old.

“My parents thought there was an opportunity for me and my younger brother. We lived with guardians that were friends of the family,” Kennedy said.

He spoke almost no English, which caused him to be shy.

“It was the hardest language to learn and I’m still learning. The hardest parts of the language are the tenses and the plurals. I feel for a lot of those young men,” he says of young players who lack verbal skills. “Some of that shyness is embarrassment.”

Broken English didn’t hold Pola back. His father shortened his son’s name from Polamalu when he sent him to California, an obvious attempt to Americanize his son’s identity. Kennedy did the rest.

“I was blessed enough to be good in sports. My guardian said there’s this really good program at Mater Dei High School. I played there; played basketball and football, became a student body president,” Pola, one of 10 children, said.

Pola accepted a scholarship to play football at USC, where he met Jack Del Rio and formed the bond that brought him to Jacksonville to serve as Del Rio’s running backs coach the past four seasons.

“I took my recruiting trips to Penn State, Notre Dame, Alabama, USC and Washington. Jack was a top recruit. Everywhere I went they said you’ll never play at USC. It was one of those, ‘I could play there.’ I ended up playing as a true freshman at linebacker,” Pola said.

He was moved to fullback for the final four games of freshman year and stayed there through the end of his college career. Pola’s father passed away when he was a sophomore at USC.

Kennedy’s brother, Aoatoa, carved out his own niche in college football. He was the nose tackle on the 1986 Penn State team that defeated Miami to win the national title.

An older brother, Faasasalu Polamalu, was a fire dancer at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. Faasasalu now lives in Oregon and provided a stable upbringing for his and Kennedy’s nephew, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, the son of the oldest of Kennedy’s four sisters. Her husband abandoned the family when Troy was four years old and eventually Troy moved in with Faasasalu’s family in Oregon.

Between college and the start of his coaching career, Kennedy was a home builder in Los Angeles, where he also did mentoring work with gang members

“I was building next to a HUD complex that had a lot of gangs. I ended up building programs, tutoring and mentoring. It’s great when one of those kids writes to you and says you saved my life,” Pola said.

Since then, he has carved out a considerable coaching career that includes a national championship stint at USC.

“My goal has always been to lead a program; be a coordinator, be a head coach,” Pola said.

The Jaguars running backs he coaches will help Pola achieve recognition. Maurice Jones-Drew is on the cusp of stardom, Greg Jones is considered to be one of the top fullbacks in the game, and seventh-round pick Rashad Jennings is a mouth-watering prospect Pola ranked the fifth-best running back in the draft.

“I want the goal this season for my group to be to make every practice and play in every game. That means come to practice every day. When you’re not available, the game-planning, everything hurts. I used to say to Fred (Taylor), you may not get a rep, but the team sees you’re out there,” Pola said.

“They’re so talented that if we get them in that mindset, the stats will show up. Maurice Drew hasn’t missed a game. They’re going to be bruised, they’re going to be sore, but I’ve got to get them to the game,” he added. “I love them. They’re good guys. They’re good people and you can do a lot when you have good people.”

Full Article

Returning From Knee Injury, Manuwai Practices With Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Wearing a brace on his right knee and feeling a little timid, guard Vince Manuwai returned to practice with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday.

Even though he took just three snaps with the first-team offense, it was Manuwai's first full practice since tearing two knee ligaments more than nine months ago.

"It's not like they're trying to throw me in the fire," Manuwai said. "They're working me in. Am I anxious? Yeah, but I'm not trying to force it at the same time. I don't want nothing bad to happen. Part of it, too, is getting your mind right before the hitting and all that."

Manuwai, who tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee during last year's opener, was initially scheduled to be back at the start of training camp next month. But he dropped 30 pounds during his rehabilitation and showed enough leg strength and mobility that the training staff cleared him for the final week of organized team activities.

"I'm sure we'll be smart with him as he's coming back from a knee (injury), but he's been cleared to practice and that's the first step in the recovery process and him getting back to full speed as a dominant football player for us," coach Jack Del Rio said.

If Manuwai returns to form, Jacksonville's power running game could follow. With Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew splitting carries, the Jaguars were one of the best running teams in the league in 2006 and 2007. But several injuries along the line proved to be too much for Jacksonville to overcome last season.

Manuwai and fellow guard Maurice Williams (biceps) were placed on injured reserve following the first game. Starting center Brad Meester (biceps) missed most of training camp, all the preseason and the first six meaningful games. And backup tackle Richard Collier was shot and paralyzed just days before the opener.

Del Rio blamed the injuries on aging linemen and a poor offseason conditioning program. He fired the team's strength and conditioning coordinator and revamped the line through free agency and the draft.

Jacksonville signed three-time Pro Bowl left tackle Tra Thomas, then drafted Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton with their first two picks.

But the key to getting the line back in shape might rest with Manuwai, a 6-foot-2, 330-pound Hawaiian who's been the team's best blocker the last few years.

"It's great to see him back," Del Rio said. "He's really worked hard in the weight room and he's proud of the fact that he's got his weight under control where we'd like it to be, and that's a big thing. Instead of fighting to get the weight in line, he can work on becoming a better football player.

"When you bring him back, you're bringing a Pro Bowl-caliber left guard back onto your football team, and that helps everybody."

Full Article