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Falekaono’s love of football shines through

Junior linebacker leads stellar Sabers defense with a smile on his face

By Robert Collias 5 min read

KAHULUI -- The smile on Ofa Falekaono's face runs the entire spectrum of delight.

The sly grin he walks to football practice with, the ear-to-ear beam he wears on the sideline, the hard-to-detect smirk he has when doing his

job relentlessly on the gridiron -- all are part of the Maui High School junior linebacker's love of football.

"I gotta be fun every single day," Falekaono said with a laugh before practice Monday. "Gotta have a positive attitude, always got to have laughing people around and make everybody have an enjoyable feeling -- it's the way you want them to express their feelings back to you, being happy and stuff."

Falekaono introduced himself to the Maui Interscholastic League in a big way in just a short stint in 2021.

"Ofa as a sophomore, because of all the COVID issues we had last year, he got his vaccination late and he only played in three games last year, but he had 58 tackles," Maui High coach Aylett Wallwork said. "So, he was actually a leader as a sophomore. He's the leader of our defense right now as a junior.

"He's doing pretty well, he's progressing well, really good reads, really good instinct and he keeps everybody in line."

Falekaono's love of the game was born long ago when Ofa was a lad who began following in the footsteps of his brothers Atu and Lafaele Falekaono.

The advice from his older brothers -- Ofa played with Lafaele last season for the Sabers -- is usually football-related.

"What we talk about is what's going on on the field," said Ofa, who stands 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds. "And what's some techniques I need to use and how I can help the other positions with techniques that they can use. And then we just talk about film, film is the only thing we need to watch every day."

Ofa Falekaono has college football in mind and has a chance to do so with his play on the field and a solid 3.5 grade-point average.

"I think about going to college and playing football, my grades are doing good, trying to stay on top of them every single day," he said.

Falekaono said "honestly, yes and no" when asked if he feels he's a leader for the Sabers. He is the one who calls out the start cadences to all of the warm-up and drill work at Maui High practice.

"We gotta tell everybody what we want to do on our assignments and focus on what our assignments are," he said. "And then, we're all a leader. I'm not going to just put it on me, we're all as a team."

He does take it upon himself to teach some of the younger Maui High players what it means to be a Saber.

"I tell them what we have got to do and stuff," Falekaono said. "We all have assignments and technique to work on. ... Even during the game we tell each other what we have got to do and what we see out there."

Atu Falekaono played with former MIL Defensive Player of the Year Feleti Afemui, a recent Vanderbilt graduate and the first player from Maui to earn a football scholarship to an SEC school straight out of high school.

Afemui is now a physical education teacher at Maui High and is helping coach the football team that includes his brother, Mosese Afemui, a 6-0, 240-pound sophomore defensive lineman who is close friends with Ofa Falekaono.

"I watched him throughout the years, I was watching him, me and Mo," Falekaono said of Feleti Afemui. "I talk to him about college football and he said it's a very competitive level, it's competitive up there and the main thing he wants us to do is keep our grades up -- every day you gotta do your thing."

Feleti Afemui has had an eye on Ofa Falekaono since watching him on the Pop Warner fields with his younger brother. When asked if there are any similarities between himself and Falekaono, Afemui said a vehement "no."

"Ofa is just his own man," Afemui said. "All the qualities and traits that he has, that's all on him. It has nothing to do with me, it's all him. Everything he's learned, that's all him. He developed on his own.

"As a Saber, I'm so proud to see the way he's grown and developed and just seeing the awesome job that (Maui High linebacker) Coach Nolan (Au) has done, just raising him from Pop Warner all the way up to Big Boys to here. It's awesome."

Falekaono and Mosese Afemui lead the Maui High defense in laughter, for certain, often trash-talking with each other about who has the best hair. Nathan Russell, Aizley Lakalaka, Kupono Soberano and Viliami Vakalahi are also key contributors to the staunch defense.

The Sabers (2-1) lead the MIL on defense, surrendering just 139.7 yards per game while producing three shutouts in four games, including the preseason.

"This defense is very good," Ofa Falekaono said. "We are all out there being competitive and stuff. We all talk a lot and that's the main thing. We just need to do our assignments and keep doing what we got to do, listen to the coaches because they're going to tell us the right way, the pathway to the championship."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias @mauinews.com

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