Five many years right after their son still left Samoa in look for of a future in soccer, Jack and Lise Taleni gazed up from their seats Saturday, awestruck at the sight of his encounter flashing across the Coliseum jumbotron whilst tens of hundreds of supporters cheered him in unison.
The final time they’d found Tyrone in man or woman, he’d hardly at any time watched an American soccer match, allow on your own performed in a person. Now their son was chasing down an opposing quarterback for USC, pulling him to the turf for his very first sack as a Trojan. It was a surreal minute. About them, family and pals screamed and jumped for pleasure. So Jack and Lise, possessing hardly ever attended an American soccer match, adopted their lead, smiling wide as they celebrated their son.
“It was a new working experience for us, currently being there,” claimed Lise, Tyrone’s mother. “So we just went alongside with what everyone else was carrying out, screaming and shouting and tapping each other. It was genuinely exciting for us.”
It was by now an emotional day for the Taleni family. Five excruciatingly extended yrs had handed since Lise and Jack were previous collectively with their son — so extensive that Tyrone told himself to put together for his mother and father to be different people than he remembered.
But the very same was accurate for Tyrone, who’d been by means of a life-altering journey because leaving Savai’i in the tumble of 2017 with the hope of funding his schooling with football. His unbelievable pursuit of a scholarship in a activity he’d hardly ever performed had taken him from Mt. San Antonio Community Higher education to Manhattan, Kansas, just before USC mentor Lincoln Riley scooped up the defensive lineman from the NCAA transfer portal.
Alongside the way, he longed for the working day his loved ones could observe him play soccer. But vacation constraints remained in spot for the independent state of Samoa for more than two a long time of the pandemic, limiting these who could enter or go away the island. A couple times before USC’s time opener, Tyrone located out his parents and sister, Qudaela, would be there for his Trojans debut.
When Tyrone woke up that morning, he went straight to satisfy his spouse and children at the resort. Lise burst into tears as before long as she observed her son. Jack marveled at how substantially he’d grown.
“I started out treating him like he was my minor boy, slapping his cheeks and sensation his muscle tissue,” Jack said with a chuckle. “He’s a whole lot unique now with his entire body!”
It had been heartbreaking for both Jack and Lise to observe him go away behind their little village of Vaiola half a 10 years before. They anxious about Tyrone traveling so considerably to perform an unfamiliar activity in a location so diverse from their home. But they explained to on their own to permit Tyrone discover his possess way.
“When he remaining, we didn’t have plenty of money to help him,” Jack reported. “He was just heading out there to see exactly where he would end up. And so to see him on that discipline that day, all of individuals thoughts arrived back again to us.”
“We’re just happy and thankful,” Lise added. “We know he had a whole lot of struggles when he came to America. At the pretty starting, owning to go via what he did, search at him wherever he is now.”
USC defensive lineman Tyrone Taleni requires section in a group practice session.
(USC Athletics)
As they took in the scene all over the Coliseum, wandering by means of the tailgates on the South lawn, they could barely consider what they observed.
Inside of, they marveled at a stadium even larger than any they’d at any time noticed, which loaded up Saturday with more than 60,000 fans.
“Their eyes lit up,” explained Ula Matavao, Taleni’s cousin. “They could not think how large it was. There’s nothing like that back in Samoa. It was a lifestyle shock for them. They’ve been to the States right before, but they’ve in no way experienced university soccer.”
And at the centre of it all was Tyrone, who performed 31 snaps in his USC debut, a lot more than he played in any single video game past season at Kansas State. They realized sufficient about football to fully grasp he’d occur a long way for that kind of function.
Kansas State defensive close Tyrone Taleni sacks Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels during a game on Oct. 24, 2020 in Manhattan, Kan.
(Peter G. Aiken / Getty Photographs)
“It was these a fantastic detail,” Lise said. “The whole time I viewed him all over the place he went, no matter if he was on the field or on the sideline. It was just so interesting to see him there.”
That thrill was apparent in Tyrone as he celebrated his initial sack, realizing complete very well his loved ones was viewing from the stands.
They’ll be in the stands again Saturday when USC will take on Stanford in Palo Alto. With defensive lineman De’jon Benton possibly out since of an personal injury, Tyrone could engage in an even more substantial role at defensive tackle this week. Riley singled him out Tuesday as somebody who experienced “stepped up” alongside the defensive entrance.
His mother and father last but not least noticed that for them selves previous Saturday. It still left them inflammation with satisfaction at the life he’d created for himself considering the fact that leaving Samoa.
That night, Tyrone was awake in bed, even now stunned that his mother and father had actually seen him enjoy college soccer.
“I was just so satisfied,” Tyrone said. “I was happy of myself, that I was able to be right here, to give the most effective that I can and eventually getting them be a part of it.
“Words seriously just can't clarify it.”
[ad_2]
0 comments:
Post a Comment