BYU Cougars new head coach, Tongan-born Kalani Sitake [1]
Sunday, January 17, 2016 - 17:19. Updated on Sunday, January 17, 2016 - 18:28.
Brigham Young University (BYU) has recruited Tongan born Kelaokalani (Kalani) Sitake as head coach for their college gridiron football team, the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah.
Apart from being BYU’s first Pacific Islander head coach, the recruitment will also make Sitake the first head coach of Tongan descent in the FBS (Division I Football Bowl Subdivision); the highest level of college football in the United States. Forty year-old Sitake was announced as head coach last month, on December 19.
After his appointment Sitake expressed his gratitude. "I wouldn’t have been able to do it without people that have influenced my life and my career – I wouldn’t have been able to do all these things if it weren’t for the support of my family who raised me the right way,” he said.
Sitake is a BYU alumni and a former running back for the BYU Cougars. He was named BYU’s Football Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1998 and was team captain in 1999. Since 2001, Sitake has held coaching positions for various teams including assistant head coach for Oregon State University last year. From 2012 to 2014, Sitake was assistant head coach for the University of Utah, BYU’s biggest rival.
Football program
Tom Holmoe, the Director of Athletics at BYU, commended Sitake. Holmoe stated, “He’s a tremendous football coach, I’ve known him for a long time, and each and every time that I see him the one thing that comes out that’s most apparent is humility. He’s a great man, and we have young men in this football program, and we’re so excited to be able to put Kalani with these young men.”
Sitake said he was keen to get to work, “I’m excited. I’m more positive than anything, I want to see these guys excel and I’m going to demand that they do the best they can and I’m going to do everything I can to help them reach their goals.”
Sitake was born in Tonga. He immigrated to Hawaii as a child with his parents Tomasi and 'Eseta Vaetolufatu. Apart from his football career, Sitake is also a dedicated Mormon, having served two years as a missionary for the LDS church.
“I’m proud of my heritage and where I come from, that’s important to me, but I’m also proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’m proud of being a good person and a good friend,” he said.
Holmoe stated BYU’s commitment to supporting Kalani, “This is a new era in BYU football. It’s a dawning of a new day in BYU football. Whenever you start with a new head coach, things change – there will be some hills and some valleys along the way and he and his staff, me and my staff and all of Cougar Nation will lift him up.”
The BYU Cougars are based at LaVell Edwards Stadium, in Provo, Utah.
Kalani is married with three children.