Manase Tonga started his journey to the NFL at Aragon just like any other NFL player would start his high school football career: by leading the team in a key statistic. His just happened to be fumbles. “My first year of football was pretty horrendous. I think I had like five fumbles in one game,” says Tonga. No one expected that the Aragon class of 2002 graduate would eventually go on to play fullback for the Oakland Raiders.
There was one coach, however, who was able to look past the fumbles. “Even though I had a terrible freshman year and hardly played, [Head Coach Steve Sell] saw something in me,” says Tonga. “He bumped me up to varsity and said, ‘You’re going to learn.’ He was smart enough to know that if he put me with [the upperclassmen], they would teach me the game, the basic fundamentals, and it paid off.”
Sell adds, “You could tell he was one of the best athletes on campus right away. The fumbles were nothing because he was such a great athlete. In track and field he won the high jump, triple jump, and long jump.”
Tonga played tight end his entire sophomore season, earning second team PAL and county honors after scoring seven touchdowns. “That changed our season. He was really hard to account for,” says Sell.
Tonga adds, “It was a huge boost for my confidence.”
Tonga continued to play tight end into his junior season until the starting running back went down with an injury midway through the year. Tonga was immediately put in to replace him. In just his second game at tailback, the Dons faced a dominant, top- ranked Woodside team that was sweeping the peninsula.
“It was a huge stage. Unfortunately we lost by three, but we gave them a run for their money. That game was where I made my mark as a running back, and realized that I was going to be ‘that guy,’” says Tonga. “I was going to get a lot of attention, and college was a very viable option now.”
Sell adds, “I remember one of the custodians had to put him on a cart to wheel him down to the locker room because he was cramping so bad. After that game I said, ‘This kid is different.’ He competed like no one I ever remember.”
Tonga never looked back, running his way past previous records for yards in a game with 365, yards in a season with 1,886, and touchdowns with 25. He was also named MVP, All-County selection, and All-League selection. The Dons retired his number at the end of the 2002 season.
Tonga started receiving letters from colleges and visits from coaches at the end of his junior year. He was recruited by eight of the 10 Pac-10 schools and a handful of smaller schools. Tonga originally signed with Utah, but following a two-year church mission to Honduras, Tonga decided to transfer to Brigham Young University.
At BYU, Tonga paved the way as a fullback for the all-time BYU leading rusher Harvey Unga, and scored 22 touchdowns rushing and receiving.
Tonga was signed by the Oakland Raiders following the 2010 NFL draft, where he spent the next two years playing behind running back Darren McFadden and fullback Marcel Reece. Despite the much more physical style of play and sheer size of players, Tonga does see many similarities between Raider football and Aragon football.
“As far as locker room culture and playing the game of football, to me it’s very reminiscent of high school. In order to take your mind off the politics, like, ‘Am I going to get cut tomorrow? Am I gonna start this week? What’s my status on the team?’ That just adds to the load you already carry. It adds to the pressure. So what a lot of us did was we just went out and goofed off and had fun during practice. We’ll be on the field singing ‘Lion King’ or whatever it is we wanted to do. It’s just very reminiscent of high school and just how much fun we had because you had to make it that way. That was the only way you could take the pressure off.”
Tonga says every team has a “Chad Ochocinco,” a guy who will goof off to make the grind that is the NFL entertaining. “Guys like Darren McFadden are constantly yapping and cracking jokes, they’re laughing at what the O-line coach is wearing and it just changes the mood right away.”
Tonga was cut by the Raiders last year, but plans on going back to BYU to finish up his bachelor’s degree. No matter where he goes, football, starting with his days at Aragon, will always be a part of him.
“Because I played it so long, it’s basically who I am now. You do have that team aspect, but at the same time you are held accountable for your part,” says Tonga.
“There are a lot of life lessons learned in football. A lot of those lessons still to this day I’m applying them and its benefitting me. I think had I not been able to play football, [been able] to be in that environment where I can learn certain characteristics, I think I would be a completely different guy now.”
The same guy who led his freshman team in fumbles ended up belonging to an elite club of 53 of the best football players in the world.
