Lene Maiava flew five hours to Honolulu earlier this summer and, after a short delay, boarded another five-hour flight to Pago Pago, American Samoa.
When he arrived in Tafuna, his home village, he saw a familiar face: Joe Salave’a, the former UA star and coach who’s now an assistant at Washington State.
“He’s always recruiting on the island,” said Maiava, the UA’s starting right tackle. “It was nice for me to catch him, for us to catch up and talk about football.
“I told him, ‘I know you want to come back and be a Wildcat.