DT target plans USC visit

Faatui Tuitele is a defensive tackle from St. Louis HS in Honolulu, Hawaii that will likely be one of the best at his positions in the 2019 class.

When discussing scholarship offers, the 6-foot-3 and 265-pound prospect has a story like many other elite high school football prospects. He currently has nine scholarship offers, including five from the Pac-12. UCLA was the last school to offer and more schools could be coming with offers soon. He says he’s been in close contact with Arizona, Arizona State and Washington State lately.

But it was when Tuitele received his first two scholarships, from BYU and Hawaii, when he first realized he could be a big time football player.

“It felt like reality has set in,” Tuitele told TrojanSports.com. “Like wow, there’s more to football than just high school or pop warner. Big boy’s league is what we call ours over here. There’s more to just playing high school football and going to work. There’s college football. Being able to continue my football career in college is a blessing because I’ve always loved football my whole life and all these colleges gave me opportunities to continue that dream, to continue that success at their universities. It’s really just a dream come true.”

Those first scholarship offers didn’t come that long ago. That might be what’s keeping Tuitele as grounded as he is. He doesn’t seem like a prospect who’s lost touch with what an opportunity for a free education means.

“It’s honestly a dream come true,” Tuitele said. “These moments are what makes a dream up. Having all these colleges come after you, it’s a very humbling experience. I’m very blessed. And I’m at a loss for words for where I’m at right now. Because one year ago, I had no offers, I was just a kid, working hard. I didn’t even think of offers yet. I just wanted to work hard, get out of Hawaii and make a name for myself and my family and make a better life. And when the colleges started coming, showing interest, it was just a true blessing to have all the colleges interested in me and what I can do. And I promise on signing day, I’ll sign to the college that I feel and my family feels that I’ll give my all too.”

And this is where Tuitele’s story differs from the stories of many of the students he’ll be surrounded by in college. While the more privileged might not be as worried about paying for school, Tuitele’s scholarship opportunities are truly a way for him to better his life.

Tuitele grew up in Honolulu’s Mayor Wright Housing. The notorious public housing project was recently in the news for settling with its tenants for deplorable living conditions. Complaints of no hot water and a severe lack of maintenance led to a $350,000 payout from the city to those tenants. And that’s not even mentioning the very real problems with drug and gang activity.

“People really think of Hawaii as paradise, everyone sees the good side of Hawaii, the paradise, the nice beaches, the sand, the blue skies,” Tuitele said. “But for me, growing up, I was born into one of the bad neighborhoods in Hawaii.”

So this young man turned to the football field to keep himself on track.

“I grew up all my life, surrounded by gangs, drugs and violence, all the time,” Tuitele said. “There’s always killings, shootings, stabbing, everyday. And that’s not the part that everybody hears from Hawaii. Because nobody wants to show that part of Hawaii. But that’s the reality that I grew up in and football was a way out for me.”

Football became an outlet that kept him away from this issues he was surrounded by.

“I always loved football because it kept me out of danger, it kept me out of trouble,” Tuitele said. “So football was really my first love and football really has always been there for me from the start. So being able to continue with football is a great opportunity that I’m taking so seriously, all the things that God has blessed me with. And I just want to give back to my parents for all they have given to me, all the sacrifices that they’ve made and have done for me. I just want to give back to them one day. So my parents are my motivation for waking up, going to school and doing my best in classes and on the field. It’s all for my parents and all for God too. I wouldn’t be here or who I am today if it wasn’t for them.”

With his family and faith in mind, Tuitele plans to look into all the great opportunities he’s been given by various college coaching staffs. One of the schools he’ll look into is USC. He plans to visit campus in the coming weeks.

“On the week of March 10, I’m going to be up in L.A. for the Nike Opening Camp and I’m also going to visit USC,” Tuitele said.

USC is the only visit he currently has set. And it will be his first time at the school.

“What I’ve been hearing from people who’ve visited USC, they’ve been telling me, man, USC is a great place,” Tuitele said. “Great coaches, great people, great atmosphere. It’s just very welcoming and everyone is so friendly and family oriented. I’m just expecting to have a great time visiting USC.”

His contact with the Trojans started months ago back in the summer.

“It all started at the GPA camp over here in Hawaii,” Tuitele said. “I was doing one of the drills that the USC coaches ran. I guess I caught their eye. They took interest into me and they just started talking to me. They really wanted me at the GPA camp, they liked what they saw, how I performed. I won the d-line MVP at the GPA camp as well. So I was on USC’s radar for a while and then if I’m not wrong, last year, October or November, one of those months, I got a call from Coach Cal (Lee) my head coach. And he told me that Coach Johnny Nansen wanted to talk because Coach Johnny Nansen can’t call me directly. So he gave me Coach Jonny Nansen’s number and I called Coach Nansen. And he was just talking to me about how they love what they saw and that my skills showed at the GPA camp and how important that was. They watched my film from this past year but they didn’t rush into anything, they wanted to see how I performed on the field against my opponents. And they loved my film. So I was talking to Coach Nansen and he was telling me how USC is a great program, how they’re great at academics over there.”

And Coach Nansen didn’t really have say too much about the program. Tuitele grew up as a USC fan.

“You know, I love USC,” Tuitele said. “Growing up, I always loved USC, watching USC football, watching Troy Polamalu at USC. Hearing about Junior Seau over there. It’s just a great tradition, a legacy at USC. So when Coach Johnny Nansen called me about the USC offer, I was really so speechless because USC was always a dream school for me. And to hear that they wanted to offer me, it was like, wow, this is really happening. It was a really big deal for me, being offered from USC. Especially, a lot of my family members love USC. So it made it even more special.”

Just don’t expect him to make a commitment anytime soon. As a member of the 2019 class, he expects to take his time before making any sort of commitment.

“I’m still a sophomore,” Tuitele said when asked if he could be making a commitment soon. “I’m still keeping my options open to all the colleges. I’m not trying to rush into any decisions just yet. I’ve still got to talk it over with my family and everybody.”