Trio of Samoan players lead UTPB football team
The UTPB football spring season has begun, so we decided to look at the roster.
Of the 71 players listed, only six are not from Texas, of those six, three of them hail from the same place, the Samoan Islands.
"They don't say much, so good luck in the interview," UTPB coach Justin Carrigan said, laughing. "But they play hard, they bring it."
A.J. Fano, Leti Manu and Frank Seiuli are all senior defensive linemen for the Falcons, and are all from Pago-Pago, where they went to high school together.
The plane ride home takes 11 hours, one they hardly get to take.
"It's terrible," Seiuli said. "All I do is sleep. As soon as I got on the plan is sleep and that's it."
They say the differences between Odessa and home are huge, from the food to the weather.
"Back home, all you got to do is, you've got your family, when they cook, you're so happy when you see your family," Seiuli said. "Anything you want, they value. But over here is way different. But west Texas is like, the weather. I don't like the weather. It's cold, hot, cold, hot, and they say it's west Texas weather."
Because they have each other, though, it makes easier to get through all the changes they've had to go through.
"I feel like I'm at home," Fano said. "If I came and they weren't here, I don't know what I would do to be honest. I think I would, I don't know. Not only that, I've got a scholarship, free school, an education."
For most of the team, they're only hours away from home, and the trio says it puts their situation in perspective.
"I feel bad," Manu said. "I feel like, they're lucky. They're close to their families. But us, we're far."
Regardless of all the changes they've been through, they never really thought they'd end up here in Odessa.
"Oh no, I never heard about Odessa until now," said Fano.
I thought that was strange, a football player with no knowledge of Odessa, the home of Friday Night Lights?
"Yeah, I heard about Friday Night Lights, but I didn't know it was here in Odessa," Fano said.
The trio said that after graduation they plan to go back home to visit, but do continue their life here in what they call, "the mainland."