One of the biggest moments in an athlete’s story is when they get their first offer. Still, that moment happened during his sophomore year for junior Tufanua Ionatana Umu~Cais, known as T.I. Over the last year, he has built up 21 division-one offers for a collegiate football career with the most recent being Michigan State, University of Texas, University of Oklahoma, and University of Colorado Boulder.
“[During T.I.’s junior year] he wanted to step into that leadership role and help people new to starting and to help build them up,” defensive line coach Cedric Mauga said.
Mauga believes how Umu~Cais has earned his captain spot on the team this year is a direct result of how he’s helped his teammates work to accelerate their game. Umu~Cais has come a long way in a short time, but he always tries to remember how he became a football player in the first place.
“When I was six [my Grandma] kinda pushed it on to me, and I’m happy she did because she thought it would fit on me, and it worked out,” Umu~Cais said.
Umu~Cais strongly believes that he wouldn’t be where he is now without his grandma. After his grandma passed, his parents started to push him to become better and be the best he could be. He wants to play for his family since they’ve been with him through his journey with football.
He’s also found that he creates strong bonds with other coaches and players on the team. “His freshman year was [also] my first year, and with us both being Samoan, we contested well and built that bond,” Mauga said.
Mauga and Umu~Cais’ finding of an early bond helped them connect during games; coach Mauga loved to see the work Umu~Cais put in to get the type of offers he received, by staying in the gym and being a sponge to every bit of advice people gave him. Both Umu~Cais and sophomore Middle linebacker (#50) Cain Brackney have that mindset of absorbing knowledge given to them and they are always working to improve themselves, according to Mauga.
“We lived in the springs and were on a football team together and built a bond from there, and moved to Creek to keep it going,” Brackney said.
Brackney liked the bond they made when they were playing youth football together. They moved to Creek to play football together because they both wanted to elevate their game and wanted to be on the same team with each other. They push each other continuously, and Umu~Cais has grown his competitiveness and work ethic with Brackney. They’ve helped push each other for years. “We push each other to get the the next level of our play and this game,” Brackney said.
As Umu~Cais has grown as a player, he’s also started to get more involved with colleges, leading him to receive multiple D1 offers over the last few years. For players, this process requires a lot of communication between their high school coaches, and the coaches hoping to recruit them.
“[Offensive line] coach Betti sends out the film to college coaches and that helps [get in touch with D1 coaches], and through my X where I DM coaches and send them film, and if they respond they respond, and if not just move on to the next one,” Umu~Cais said.
When you get your name out there early in high school, it gives you better odds of getting answers and offers from D1 coaches. T.I. is still pushing to get more offers and continues to play his game, and while all the offers are coming in he’s still trying to work with his coaches and play to a more elevated level of football.
With all the attention T.I. is getting from D1 offers, it’s now up to him to pick one out of the 20 offers he has to keep his story moving to the next chapter.
“I’m always trying to understand that the future is coming quickly but I’m trying to slow it down and live in the moment,” Umu~Cais said.
