NEWS

USA Eagle Vili Toluta’u: Living a Dream

Atop the hill overlooking the southern field at the Kahului Community Center Park, two picnic tables sit adjacent to Onehee Avenue. The field that sits in the basin below is where Vili Toluta’u launched his rugby career at 10 years old, chasing after his older brother, Samuela Toluta’u, hoping to fill a few water bottles and get the odd sniff on the wing with the Kahului Rugby Warriors.

Up the embankment on the other side of the field is the Kokua Pool, where a teenaged Vili and his Kahului teammates occasionally hopped the fence for a late-night post-practice dip.

There aren’t any lights anymore at the field, and the men currently lining the field are setting up for a soccer tournament. The Warriors no longer frequent this particular park, but as Toluta’u gazes from the more elevated of the two picnic tables, the memories gush.

“This is where it all started,” he says.

Read more about Toluta’u, by Mark Janzen, here.