On the Saturday of Virginia Tech’s scheduled 2012 spring game, Andrew Motuapuaka committed to the Hokies. On the following Monday, he didn’t show up to his high school classes.
It wasn’t a reward for seizing a coveted scholarship from the in-state power and icon Frank Beamer. He was sick, drained and beat from a nine-hour weekend session honoring his heritage, fulfilling a lifelong dream. The day after Motuapuaka committed, he got a tattoo observing his Tongan ancestry.
It was the Virginia Tech senior linebacker’s first tattoo. It’s been his only tattoo, one that paints his left arm in tribal patterns commemorating his Polynesian roots.