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Cameras are fairly ordinary at an Oregon football practice.
On a clear Sunday evening at Autzen Stadium, however, Kaulana Apelu quickly became suspicious when a certain cameraman kept following his every move around the field.
“I felt like something weird was going on,” the 2015 Kamehameha graduate said.
Head coach Willie Taggart called his junior linebacker to the goal line for a 1-on-1 drill when the scoreboard in front of him suddenly came to life.
Apelu’s mom, sitting in his childhood bedroom back home in Hawaii lined with Oregon and Kamehameha memorabilia, had a special message for her son.
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PROFILE
Name: Kaulana Apelu
School: Oregon
Class: Junior
Position: Linebacker
Height: 5 feet 11
Weight: 200 pounds
High school: Kamehameha (2015)
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He doesn’t remember anything she said, but he got the gist of the message pretty quick. After coming back from two torn knee ligaments in high school to walk on in Eugene, Apelu was awarded an athletic scholarship to cover his final two years of eligibility.
“Everyone was cheering,” Apelu recalled last Friday. “Afterwards I re-watched the video so I could hear what she said. It was a special feeling, man.”
It has become a trend across college football. Schools have tried to outdo each other with creative ways of telling a walk-on they no longer have to foot the financial bill for the entire school year.
Apelu’s story is about much more than the delivery by which he was notified of his scholarship.
Apelu’s story is about a journey filled with heartbreak, pain, hard work and perseverance.
Three years ago, Kaulana Apelu was holed up in that same bedroom as the one his mom appeared in on the UO scoreboard. Practice at Kamehameha was supposed to start soon, but he had just gone through surgery to repair a torn ACL for the second time.
He had also lost his stepfather in a drowning accident, and his high school football career was over after the first game of his senior year.
This after tearing his knee in the first game of his junior season as well.
There was some commotion at the front door of his house as a teammate came by to check on his friend. Then another popped in, followed by another.
Practice was supposed to begin, yet more than half of the team was at Apelu’s house to check on their guy.
“We had no room for anyone to walk around,” Apelu said. “I was expecting a couple of my best friends to come over, but I think there were about 20 guys at practice, and everyone else was at my house. It was cool to have the support of everyone.”
Kekai Rios, the starting catcher for the Hawaii baseball team, was in the same grade as Apelu at Kamehameha.
He was part of the crew to come by that day to check on his friend, whom he calls one of the hardest workers he’s ever known.
“He’s always been the one guy who was super positive about everything and so everyone was super down for him (when he got hurt),” Rios said. “He made it seem like he wasn’t going through anything because that’s him. He always puts someone else before him, but we knew what he had been through and we were all trying to make him feel better.”
Rios said the day before Apelu received his scholarship that the two spoke via FaceTime. Apelu is listed as the starting MIKE linebacker on this week’s depth chart against Southern Utah, and he had been running with the first team in practice, but he still didn’t have that scholarship to put his mind at ease.
“He was telling me he’s doing everything he can,” Rios said. “He was trying so hard because he wanted what everyone else got. He didn’t know what else he could do.”
“I told him to keep at it and boom, the next day he got his scholarship. He said he’d never leave Oregon until he got that scholarship and he got it.”
“I think once i found out that I tore my knee the second time, I thought that my life was just over,” Apelu said. “I can say now that was dumb at the time, but I didn’t have any offers my last year of high school and football might have been over.”
A recruiting coordinator from Oregon in charge of the Hawaii area visited Kamehameha to scout different Warriors, including defensive back Dylan Kane, who signed with the Ducks and is currently roommates with Apelu in Eugene.
Although he only played two games in his last two years of high school, Apelu was given an opportunity to walk on at Oregon.
To this day, he doesn’t really know why he got the chance.
At 5-foot-11, with two surgically repaired knees playing a position that before college, he hadn’t tried since his Pop Warner days, Apelu has had to fight every day to fit in. Even in his two starts last season, including a nine-tackle performance against California, he still hadn’t quite made it.
“Having faith and knowing something good was going to happen was one of my biggest challenges,” Apelu said. “To always have my head right was hard because there were a lot of things going wrong and not the way I wanted.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be playing linebacker, but two years away from (football) taught me everything I had to do has to be precise and my work ethic has to be the best, because this was going to be my only opportunity.”
When he takes the field Saturday, it will be the 23rd time he does so in an Oregon uniform.
This one will be a little different.
HAWAII PLAYERS ON NON-UH DIVISION I FOOTBALL ROSTERS
NAME COLLEGE POS HT WT GR HIGH SCHOOL
Soli Afalava UNLV DB 6-2 205 So. Kahuku
Feleti Afemui Vanderbilt LB 6-3 235 Fr. Maui
Jordan Agasiva Utah OL 6-4 245 Jr. Mililani
Kesi Ah-Hoy Oregon St. LB 6-0 220 Fr. Kahuku
Andrew Aleki San Diego St. LB 6-3 220 Fr. Kamehameha
Bradlee Anae Utah DL 6-3 259 So. Kahuku
Kaulana Apelu Oregon LB 5-11 200 Jr. Kamehameha
Sean Auwae-McMoore Vanderbilt OL 6-4 305 Fr. Kapolei
Joey Bryant Arizona St. DB 6-1 180 Jr. Saint Louis
Jonah Buchanan Vanderbilt DL 6-4 270 Fr. ‘Iolani
Jeff Chan Syracuse K 5-10 175 Fr. Punahou
Christian Clapp UNLV WR 6-1 190 Sr. Kaiser
Onesimus Clarke Oregon St. OL 6-4 340 Fr. Waianae
Pakamiaiaea Davis TCU FB 6-2 240 Sr. KS-Hawaii
Pono Davis SMU DL 6-2 282 So. KS-Hawaii
Michael Eletise Arizona OL 6-3 318 Fr. Kaiser
Titus Failauga Oregon St. DL 6-3 261 Sr. Mid-Pacific
Breiden Fehoko LSU DL 6-3 298 Jr. Farrington
Kingston Fernandez Washington St. DL 6-2 276 Jr. Kapolei
Mango Finau BYU OL 6-4 355 Fr. Baldwin
Tainoa Foster Fresno St. LB 6-2 200 Fr. Kamehameha
Nilsson Gaisoa Washington St. OL 6-5 318 Fr. Kailua
Alohi Gilman Notre Dame DB 5-10 200 So. Kahuku
Chad Hanaoka Northwestern WR 5-6 188 Sr. ‘Iolani
Nate Herbig Stanford OL 6-4 339 So. Saint Louis
Parker Higgins Arizona St. LB 5-11 223 Fr. Kaiser
Isi Holani Kansas DL 6-3 325 Sr. Hilo
Manase Hungalu Oregon St. LB 6-1 238 Sr. Kealakehe
Calen Holt Army RB 6-0 230 Jr. Kamehameha
Jordan Iosefa USC LB 6-2 225 So. Saint Louis
Radson Jang New Mexico OL 6-2 265 Fr. Kamehameha
Shaun Kagawa Georgia Tech DB 5-11 198 Sr. KS-Hawaii
Tim Kamana Wyoming LB 5-11 213 Sr. Punahou
Kekaula Kaniho Boise St. DB 5-10 175 Fr. Kahuku
Alema Kapoi Navy DL 6-0 275 Fr. Kamehameha
Micah Kapoi Wisconsin OL 6-3 326 Jr. Kapolei
Eric Klemmer Colorado TE 6-4 210 Fr. Punahou
Ronley Lakalaka San Diego St. LB 6-0 225 Jr. Punahou
Seyddrick Lakalaka San Diego St. LB 6-1 220 Fr. Punahou
Hirkley Latu BYU LB 6-2 230 Fr. Kahuku
Kavika Laufatasaga Utah LB 6-4 235 Sr. Farrington
Keoni-Kordell Makekau Navy WR 5-11 170 Fr. ‘Iolani
Vavae Malepeai USC RB 6-0 210 Fr. Mililani
Matt Mariota Oregon TE 6-2 224 So. Saint Louis
Hercules Mata’afa Washington St. DL 6-2 252 Jr. Lahainaluna
Viliamu McMoore Utah St. OL 6-5 305 Fr. Kapolei
Christian Mejia Washington St. DL 6-3 223 Fr. Kailua
Kalei Meyer Nevada DL 6-0 290 Jr. Kamehameha
McKenzie Milton UCF QB 5-11 177 So. Mililani
Mikey Minihan Georgia Tech OL 6-2 375 Fr. Saint Louis
Keli’i Montibon Oregon St. OL 6-2 273 So. KS-Hawaii
Netane Muti Fresno St. OL 6-3 310 Fr. Leilehua
Kanawai Noa California WR 6-0 185 So. Punahou
Kyler O’Halloran UNLV LB 6-0 225 Fr. Kealakehe
Nathaniel Oishi UNLV OL 5-10 285 Jr. ‘Iolani
Scott Pagano Oregon DL 6-4 294 Sr. Moanalua
Josh Pokraka Arizona St. TE 6-0 223 Jr. Kaiser
Jimmy Quemado UTEP DL 5-11 260 So. Saint Louis
Jaisen Sanchez Colorado DB 6-1 200 Jr. Saint Louis
Isaac Slade-Matautia Oregon LB 6-0 225 Fr. Saint Louis
Adam Stack Oregon K 6-2 177 Fr. Kamehameha
Jordan Ta’amu Ole Miss QB 6-2 212 Jr. Pearl City
Tua Tagovailoa Alabama QB 6-1 219 Fr. Saint Louis
Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa Notre Dame DL 6-2 293 Fr. Kapolei
Jeremiah Taleni Florida Atl. DL 6-1 285 Sr. Kailua
Ben Taliulu Idaho DL 6-1 255 Jr. Aiea
Handsome Tanielu BYU DL 6-2 315 Sr. Waianae
Ma’a Tanuvasa Boise St. DB 6-1 197 Fr. Mililani
Johnny Tapusoa BYU LB 5-10 230 So. Kahuku
Jet Toner Stanford K 6-4 200 So. Punahou
Andru Tovi Kansas OL 6-3 310 So. Mililani
Lyle Tuiloma Colorado DL 6-3 310 So. Nanakuli
Dakota Turner San Diego St. DL 6-3 250 Sr. Mililani
KJ Uluave Utah St. OL 6-4 305 Jr. Kahuku
Semisi Uuave California OL 6-5 345 Jr. Punahou
Mo Unutoa Utah OL 6-5 280 Fr. Kapaa
Kalani Vakameilalo Oregon St. DL 6-3 316 Jr. Kapolei
Moku Watson Oregon St. DB 6-2 174 Fr. Leilehua
LaMone Williams Oregon St. DL 6-3 285 Jr. Kahuku
Kainoa Wilson Washington St. WR 5-11 169 So. Mililani
Salanoa-Alo Wily UNLV DL 6-0 295 Jr. Kahuku
Tuli Wily-Matagi Oregon St. TE 6-4 258 So. Kahuku
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