Skyline football coach Zac Erekson stopped in his tracks as he recognized the kid passing him in the hallway as the basketball player he saw shooting around in the gym a couple days earlier.
It was the spring of 2016, and Erekson just had been hired at Skyline for the upcoming season.
“Hey, I’m coach Erekson,” he remembers saying to now-senior defensive end Nifai Tonga. “I’m the new football coach, and you weren’t at our team meeting. So, why? Do you play football?”
Tonga didn’t.
“Well that’s about to change,” Erekson said.
Tonga had moved to Utah from San Francisco to live with his brother just a year before, and he never so much as had strapped on a helmet and pads. Thanks to his size and athletic ability, he picked up the sport quickly. Tonga was voted first team all-region last year and now is headed into the postseason of his senior year with interest from Division I college coaches, according to Erekson.
It all started with Erekson’s persistence.
“He could sell ice to an Eskimo,” Tonga said.
When Erekson first saw Tonga, his 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame and athleticism on the court caught his eye. But he quickly realized that despite Tonga’s lack of experience, there was another element Tonga could add to the Eagles right away.
“I just kind of felt like our team was missing that swagger,” Erekson said. “… I can’t really define it, but whatever ‘it’ is, he has it and he brings it to our team. And it’s incredibly helpful. He is our energy guy. He is the dude that rallies us up when our backs are against the wall, and he’s always excited.”
Tonga will put on Michael Jackson in the weight room and start dancing. He’s the teammate who speaks up when there’s a lull in enthusiasm during practice. He can chase a running back for 30 yards and actually catch him.
He’s also a quick-to-laugh teenager who, after getting his photo made for this story, said that if football didn’t work out, he’d fall back on modeling. The movie Zoolander was based on his life, he joked.
Tonga actually grew up in San Francisco proper, where he attended Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory. When the Giants won the World Series in 2014, he only had to walk a couple blocks from the school to reach the parade.
Tonga’s grandparents, who he called his best friends, raised him with the help of his older sisters, aunts and uncles. Tonga’s father died when he was 10 years old, and though his mother stayed in touch, he said she wasn’t around.
During his freshman year of high school, Nifai visited his half-brother Filo Tonga in Utah for their cousin’s wedding. According to Filo, Nifai didn’t want to leave. They consulted their grandparents, and Nifai moved to Utah in April of his freshman year.
“My grandparents, they were just getting way too old to keep track of me,” Nifai said. “I mean, I was like 14, 15 years old, just really curious about life. … So it was hard to leave them, but I knew it was a good move for me just because I was a wild child.”
Nifai managed to stay out of trouble in San Francisco, Filo said, but Filo was happy to let Nifai stay with him and his wife and kids if Nifai thought the move was best for him. Nifai still thinks it was.
“I can be a kid here,” he said. “We go to dances and have a good time, sleep over at a friend’s house, play football. It was relaxing moving here.”
After finishing ninth grade at Bonneville Junior High, Tonga started at Skyline his sophomore year. There he joined the basketball team and put up 7.7 points per game, fourth best on the team. Then Erekson was hired as the football coach.
“He didn’t know how to put a helmet on, shoulder pads, nothing,” Erekson said about Tonga’s first football practice. “He had no idea.”
After sorting out that, Erekson had to find a position for Tonga. It only took a day or two, Ereksen estimated, for him and his staff to realize Tonga’s skills were used best at defensive end. There, they made it simple for the first-time football player:
“Put your hand on the ground, go kill the quarterback,” they told him.
NIFAI TONGA <br>School • Skyline <br>Year • Senior <br>Position • Defensive end <br>Height • 6 foot 3 <br>Weight • 210 pounds <br>2017 statistics • 7 games played, 30 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 fumble recovery
Tonga’s natural ability earned him a unanimous vote to for the all-Region 6 first team that season.
This year, thanks in part to Tonga’s newfound love for football and affinity for studying film, he’s rapidly expanded his skill set.
“When college coaches watch him,” Erekson said, “they’re like, ‘Oh man, kid wrong-armed the crap out of that pulling guard and stuffed it right there in the hole.’ He might not have gotten the tackle, but it’s because he did his job that we got a 2-yard loss.”
When Erekson stopped Tonga in the hallway two and a half years ago to convince him to try football, he saw potential in Tonga. But Erekson didn’t realize how spot-on his instincts would turn out to be.
As for Tonga, he said Erekson taught him how to be a man.
“I was still in little-kid mode: having a good time, hanging out with the boys, I’d do my homework whenever I had time for it,” Tonga said. “But he’s definitely taught me time management and having my priorities straight. … I love him. He’s like a father figure to me.”
Friday’s prep football playoff schedule
Class 6A
First round
4 p.m. • Granger at Lone Peak
6 p.m. • Riverton at Weber
4 p.m. • Northridge at East
5 p.m. • American Fork at Hunter
4 p.m. • West Jordan at Syracuse
6 p.m. • Cyprus at Bingham
4 p.m. • Pleasant Grove at Kearns
6 p.m. • Fremont at Herriman
Class 5A
First round
3 p.m. • Wasatch at Highland
4 p.m. • Bountiful at Corner Canyon
5 p.m. • Jordan at Viewmont
4 p.m. • Skyline at Skyridge
7 p.m. • Alta at Roy
4 p.m. • Olympus at Springville
5 p.m. • Provo at Lehi
4 p.m. • Woods Cross at Timpview
Class 4A
First round
6 p.m. • Salem Hills at Mountain Crest
7 p.m. • Park City at Dixie
6 p.m. • Cedar City at Stansbury
4 p.m. • Ridgeline at Spanish Fork
5 p.m. • Tooele at Pine View
5 p.m. • Mountain View at Sky View
4 p.m. • Bear River at Orem
4 p.m. • Desert Hills at Bonneville
Class 3A
Quarterfinals
4 p.m. • Richfield at Morgan
5 p.m. • Union at Juab
4 p.m. • Manti at Summit Academy
4 p.m. • Juan Diego at Grantsville
Class 2A
Quarterfinals
4 p.m. • San Juan at South Summit
5 p.m. • Millard at Grand County
5 p.m. • American Leadership at Beaver
4 p.m. • North Sevier at Delta
Class 1A
Quarterfinals
4 p.m. • Monticello at Duchesne
4 p.m. • Altamont at Parowan
4 p.m. • Rich at Milford
3 p.m. • Kanab at Layton Christian