Uani Unga

January 21, 2010—Uani Unga has experienced much more than the average college freshman. From growing up in California, to finishing high school in Hawaii, to serving the Lord in Guatemala, Uani has established a foundation for continued success heading into the next chapter of his life. The twin brother of fellow Oregon State Beaver Feti Unga, Uani is ready to make his mark both on the field and in the classroom. Above: Feti Unga (41) takes down a University of Washington return man while brother Uani (44) closes in. This photo and cover photo: OSU Sports Information

LatterDaySports: Where were you born and raised?

Uani Unga: I was born and raised in California.

LatterDaySports: Did your parents come straight from Tonga?

Unga: No my mom went to school at Kahuku (High School in Hawaii).

LatterDaySports: She was a Red Raider?

Unga: Yeah, she was born in Tonga and went up to school in Hawaii.

LatterDaySports: And what about your dad?

Unga: He was born in California but grew up in Samoa. He lived a little bit in Hawaii and then went to high school in California.

LatterDaySports: Have you been to Tonga?

Unga: Yes, I was there in the summer of 2005.

LatterDaySports: Do you speak Tongan?

Unga: Ha, ha! I wish! I can understand it more than anything, but I can’t speak it.

LatterDaySports: I was reading an article, and someone asked you about the Tongan culture and you answered that you wanted to learn more about it. What did you mean by that?

Unga: We have some players on the team that are Tongan and speak Tongan, so we wanted to learn more from them about Tonga and also learn the language. Stephen Paea (OSU Defensive Tackle) grew up in Tonga, so we’re always hanging out with him and we always ask him about family, fahu’s (Father’s oldest sister who is the family matriarch) and how things work the Tongan way. That’s basically what we meant.

LatterDaySports: You have a lot of family who are and were college and professional football players. How did you and your brother become interested in playing football?

Unga: When we were young—about the age of eight—we started playing football and we just loved it. We didn’t play on the same team as Fahu Tahi, (Minnesota Vikings Fullback) but we played in the same league. He was in a higher division. Ever since then he’s been doing well so we’ve always had someone to look up to. Since we loved football we wanted to be like Fahu and other great Polynesian (football players) that we knew. We just kept playing and playing and now want to do our own thing.

LatterDaySports: In high school you came down to Hawaii to play football at Kahuku High School. How was that experience?

Unga: It was good. At first it was hard because we didn’t know anybody. We were in the middle of high school and comfortable where we were at and it was a change up going to school in California and then to Hawaii. The football program was good which helped us out a lot. We were able to get looks from colleges while out at Kahuku.

Uani Unga kickin' back. Photo: maelephotoblog.com

LatterDaySports: So are you a Red Raider for life?

Unga: Once a Red Raider, always a Red Raider. (Laughter)

LatterDaySports: I had to ask.

Unga: (Laughter) Yup.

LatterDaySports: Who was your coach then?

Unga: Siuaki (Livai)

LatterDaySports: Didn’t your team win a state championship while you were there?

Unga: Yeah, our senior year.

LatterDaySports: That must have been great to say the least.

Unga: Yeah. We lost during the playoffs our junior year, so it kind of pushed us harder to work for it our senior year. We were happy to do it our senior year.

LatterDaySports: Which team did you defeat in the state championship?

Unga: We played Punahou

LatterDaySports: Did Oregon State notice you during your senior year?

Unga: Yeah, they were checking out my brother (Feti) and they really didn’t know about me until the Hawaii all-star game. We were at practice and one of the Oregon State coaches noticed me and asked others who I was. They explained that I was the twin brother of one of the guys they were looking at which was my brother. The connection was made right there. We came up here for a recruiting trip. We liked it, so we committed.

LatterDaySports: Was it ever a problem for Oregon State to allow you to serve a mission?

Unga: No. That was the good thing about Oregon State. My dad was with us on the recruiting trip and coach Mike Riley explained to us that he knew about missions and about our religion and that he respected it so much, and was willing to hold our scholarships (until we came back from our missions). When my dad heard that he made up his mind and we also made up our minds.

LatterDaySports: How was the mission?

Unga: Man, best two years of my life.

LatterDaySports: You went to Guatemala?

Unga: Yeah, I went to Guatemala. It was good. It was a change. It’s a third world country and they don’t have much up there so we had to adapt to their way of life. It was a humbling experience. I thought it was good for me.

LatterDaySports: What is your favorite memory from your mission?

Unga: There was a family that we were working with for three months and my companion and I were thinking that we should probably just let them go because they were not ready, but we had a feeling to stick with them. We stuck with them and they ended up getting baptized. It was a family of four. It was a complete family, and that’s what we were looking for. In the mission, the focus was to not only baptize individuals, but to baptize families. So with that focus we were able to baptize that family and it was a neat experience.

LatterDaySports: When you came back from your mission was the transition back to the “real world” difficult, particularly regaining that football mentality?

Unga: Kind of. It was hard, but the desire to play football after being on a mission was so high that when we got here it kind of exploded on the field. We were doing our best to let the coaches know what we can do. It was exciting. It wasn’t like, “I don’t know what to do.” It was more, “Man, I miss this game.” It was a chance to play.

Uani (far left) with twin brother Feti (orange shirt) and their parents after the 2009 Las Vegas Bowl. Photo: maelephotoblog.com

LatterDaySports: How did you like playing special teams?

Unga: It was fun. I’d say kickoff coverage was my favorite. It was a chance to go down there and hit somebody. It was a lot of fun. We had a point system. If you made a tackle or a knock down you’d get a certain amount of points. It was more about getting points than worrying about the game sometimes. It just made it that much more fun. The special teams players would wait after the game to see how we did and to see how many points we got. That would always build up our desire to do better. So every game we’d go harder and harder. It was a lot of fun.

LatterDaySports: What do you think your role will be next season?

Unga: I love special teams but I want to try and earn my spot on the field on defense as a linebacker. If I happen to stay on special teams and play linebacker, that’s even better. I’m just looking forward to earning my spot on defense.

LatterDaySports: What’s you major?

Unga: I’m undecided, but I want to get into communications and ethnic studies. I’m looking at counseling troubled youth or being able to communicate with Polynesians or any troubled youth that need help in their lives, because I come from a Polynesian background. I can also speak Spanish, so I can probably help out in different ways with different ethnic groups.

LatterDaySports: When you’re not busy and have a spare moment, what do you like to do?

Unga: Lately, it’s been homework. It’s not that I like doing it, I just don’t have any free time at all. My free time is when I’m not doing football. If I’m not doing football, I’m doing homework, but a break from homework would be watching YouTube videos.

LatterDaySports: I read an article about your cousin, BYU football player, Harvey (Unga) before the Las Vegas Bowl which pitted BYU against Oregon State. He mentioned how you and Feti should avoid hitting him during the game. Did you listen?

Unga: If I had the chance to hit him I probably wouldn’t have listened. I got in for a couple of plays and I was hoping that he’d get the ball. I was just anxious. We were going to lose and it didn’t really matter what happened, but I was hoping he would have gotten the ball and run my way so I’d at least get a chance to hit him.

LatterDaySports: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. We’ll let you get back to your homework.

Unga: (Laughter)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 5:21 pm. It is filed under Football and tagged with Devin Unga, Kahuku Red Raiders, Oregon State Beavers, Uani Unga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.