SPORTS
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
January 2, 2017
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Samoan college football stars overcome adversity in 2016
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
throughout.
The Midshipmen found their offense, but their defense
was too porous, committing six penalties — the most since
2006. Navy tied the score at 45 with less than four minutes
to play, but they couldn’t stop Louisiana Tech from
kicking a game-winning field goal as time ran out.
Despite the loss, Niumatalolo’s heroics made him a
finalist for the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. He
shared the distinction with Mike McIntyre, coach of the
Colorado Buffaloes, who had a huge turnaround this
season.
In McIntyre’s first three years at the helm, the
Buffaloes limped to a cumulative 2-27 conference record
in the Pac-12. And Colorado’s star quarterback, Samoan
Sefo Liufau, ended the 2015 season prematurely after
sustaining a foot injury that required surgery.
For the Buffs to succeed this season, a healthy Liufau
had to play a major role. By the time he finished his
sophomore season in 2014, the Samoan standout had
already shattered a mind-boggling 51 school records.
As a junior, Liufau set a Colorado season record for
lowest interception percentage, including two stretches of
more than 100 passes without an interception. But his
arm isn’t his only weapon, as Liufau was fifth on the team
in rushing and second in rushing touchdowns in 2015,
despite missing most of the final three games to the foot
injury.
In 2016’s season opener, Liufau showed he was fully
healthy by throwing for 318 yards in Colorado’s 44-7
trouncing of Colorado State. Two games later, however, he
injured his right ankle against Michigan; redshirt
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
S
amoans abound in college football, but they’re
typically linemen or defensive backs; rarer still are
Samoans in leadership positions. But this season,
two Samoans showed their resilience in unexpected
positions. One Samoan quarterback returned from injury
to return his team to glory, while a Samoan head coach
excelled despite many injuries to key players.
The first Samoan college football head coach, Ken
Niumatalolo, has brought the Navy Midshipmen into the
national spotlight since taking the helm nine years ago.
Already Navy’s winningest football coach ever,
Niumatalolo added to his accolades and records last
season, winning 11 games and their third straight bowl
game, both Navy firsts.
This season, the Midshipmen continued that success
after losing starting quarterback Tago Smith in the first
game of the season. Backup Will Worth stepped into the
starting role without missing a beat and Navy won five of
their first six games.
Among the many highlights of Navy’s season was a
46-40 upset win over sixth-ranked Houston, their first
victory against a top-10 team since 1984. They eked out a
win against Notre Dame, 28-27, just their fourth win
against the Fighting Irish since 1963. Following that
victory, they won their next three games, rolling up an
astounding 183 points, including a 75-31 shellacking of
Southern Methodist University.
Following that game, Worth was voted the American
Sports Net 2016 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Player
of the Year. He had rushed for 1,181 yards, passed 1,363
yards, and placed first in the FBS with 25 rushing
touchdowns. He is only the fifth player in Navy history to
rush and pass for at least 1,000 yards in a season.
Facing Temple in the American Athletic Conference
(AAC) finals, however, the season changed for Niuma-
talolo, Worth, and the Midshipmen. Worth suffered a
season-ending knee injury in the second quarter, then
Navy also lost running backs Darryl Bonner and Toneo
Gulley in the same game. Navy fell to Temple, 10-34. A
week later, they brought their severely depleted offense to
face archrival Army, whom they had beaten for 14
straight years.
Despite their personnel challenges, Niumatalolo and
Navy put up a valiant fight. Behind by 14 points at
halftime, the Midshipmen came roaring back to take the
lead by scoring 17 unanswered points. But they couldn’t
hold back the persistent Black Knights, who scored the
go-ahead touchdown with just under seven minutes
remaining. Navy could not mount a scoring drive in
response and fell 17-21.
The Midshipmen suffered similar heartache in a close
game at the Armed Forces Bowl against Louisiana Tech.
Missing eight starters on offense and defense, Navy
battled back and forth with the Bulldogs, trading the lead
SAMOAN STARS. Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo (left photo) re-
acts while watching a field goal attempt in a National Collegiate Athletic
Association football game. In the right photo, Colorado quarterback Sefo
Liufau (#13) throws to running back Phillip Lindsay during the Pac-12
Conference championship game against the University of Washington,
in Santa Clara, California.
freshman Steven Montez stepped in, but could not rally
the Buffs to a win.
Montez led the team to a 2-1 record in the three games
Liufau missed. When the starting quarterback returned,
Colorado went on a six-game win streak that saw them
take down six divisional opponents and rise to ninth in the
national rankings.
But Liufau went down again in the Pac-12 champion-
ship against fourth-ranked Washington. Leading his
team on a first-quarter drive into Washington territory,
Liufau reinjured his right ankle and had to leave the
game. He returned in the second half, clearly favoring
that leg, which not only neutralized his running threat
but also affected his renowned passing accuracy. Liufau
threw three interceptions — half as many as he’d thrown
all last season — and the Huskies rolled to a 41-10 win.
Against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Alamo
Bowl, the injury bug struck Liufau again. Midway
through the second quarter, with the Cowboys up 17-0 and
swarming Colorado’s offense, Liufau scrambled out of
trouble and injured his right ankle again. Though he was
not expected to return, he entered the game with Colorado
down 0-31 in the third quarter. Gritting his teeth, Liufau
led his team to its only scoring drive of the game; it was a
courageous effort, but the Buffs still fell, 8-38.
Though Liufau will graduate this year, Asian sports
fans can keep watching Navy rise to greatness under
Niumatalolo. With these excellent role models to follow,
other talented Samoan players will be inspired to show
their toughness in unexpected positions on the college
gridiron.
At Pearl Harbor, U.S. and Japan seek absolution from the war
Continued from page 7
They started with a formal meeting at
another nearby military base, in what the
White House said was likely Obama’s last
meeting with a foreign leader before
leaving office in January. It was a bookend
of sorts for the president, who nearly eight
years ago invited Abe’s predecessor to be
the first leader he hosted at the White
House.
Obama, speaking after he and Abe laid
green-and-peach wreaths at the memorial,
called the harbor a sacred place and said
that “even the deepest wounds of war can
give way to friendship and lasting peace.”
It’s a notion Obama tried throughout his
presidency to put into practice, as he
reached out to former adversaries Iran,
Myanmar, and Cuba.
“As we lay a wreath or toss flowers into
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waters that still weep, we think of the
more than 2,400 American patriots,
fathers and husbands, wives and
daughters, manning heaven’s rails for all
eternity,” Obama said.
Then the two leaders greeted survivors
in the crowd. They shook hands and
hugged some of the men who fought in the
December 7, 1941 battle that President
Franklin D. Roosevelt called a “date which
will live in infamy.”
Japanese leaders have visited Pearl
Harbor before, but Abe was the first to go
to the memorial above the sunken USS
Arizona, where a marbled wall lists the
names of U.S. troops killed in the Japanese
attack.
For Abe, it was an act of symbolic reci-
procity, coming seven months after Obama
and Abe visited Hiroshima together and
renewed their calls for a nuclear-free
future. Still, both governments maintain
that the visits were separate and not
contingent upon one another.
The visit was not without political risk
for Abe, given the Japanese people’s long,
emotional reckoning with their nation’s
aggression in the war. Though the history
books have largely deemed Pearl Harbor a
surprise attack, Japan’s government still
insists it had intended to give prior notice
that it was declaring war and failed only
because of “bureaucratic bungling.”
“There’s this sense of guilt, if you like,
among Japanese, this ‘Pearl Harbor
syndrome,’ that we did something very
unfair,” said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister
in the Embassy of Japan in Washington.
He said he believes Abe’s visit would
“absolve that kind of complex that
Japanese people have.”
In the years after Pearl Harbor, the U.S.
incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese
Americans in internment camps before
dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed
some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and
70,000 in Nagasaki.
Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have
built a powerful alliance that both sides
say has grown during Obama’s tenure,
including strengthened military ties. Yet
there are questions about whether the
relationship will degenerate under Presi-
dent-elect Donald Trump, a possibility
neither Obama nor Abe addressed.
Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff
in Kailua, Hawai‘i, and Mari Yamaguchi
in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Celebrate the Year of the Rooster: January 28, 2017 through February 15, 2018!