The Rugby Journey of Sorensen Award Winner Freda Tafuna
The Rugby Journey of Sorensen Award Winner Freda Tafuna
Standing alone atop women’s college rugby, Freda Tafuna knows she’s not alone. In fact, playing this ultimate of team sports has always been a team game for Tafuna, on and off the field.
The heat-seeking missile from Lindenwood University had hardly played any rugby before she found a place in St. Charles. She had, however, grown up with it. Several of her seven brothers played, “and if you know what it’s like in big Polynesian families, with a lot of boys, the sister becomes the tackle bag,” Tafuna told GRR with a laugh. She learned quickly to handle herself, and she knew at least the basics of the game.
But through middle school and high school Tafuna played soccer and basketball. She didn’t touch a rugby ball in any official capacity until here senior year in high school. What’s more, she showed hardly a hint of the powerful presence she would be on the rugby field.
“Ask any of my soccer friends and they’ll tell you I never was the biggest physical threat,” Tafuna told GRR. “I kind of shied away from that. But when I started playing rugby I wasn’t scared; I was like ‘OK, this is what I need to do.’”
One and Not Done
Tafuna was encouraged to play rugby her senior year in high school at Villa Park in Southern California. She played in exactly one tournament … one … at the LA Invitational around the LA 7s. That was it, the sum total of her competition experience. COVID swept through to cancel everything else, and as a senior Tafuna wasn’t sure what she would be able to do after high school. But she had been seen. Word came through that Lindenwood University was interested in her to study and play rugby. It was a bit of a shock to Tafuna.
“I wasn’t really planning on going to college, but I learned more about Lindenwood from a friend from my church, and I saw they had a strong Polynesian community, and I thought that if I wanted to be serious about it, Lindenwood was where I needed to do. But I had a lot to learn.”
Truly she had a lot to learn. Much of her rugby exposure had been watching to Rugby League World Cup in 2017 and then playing 7s. So she had some very incorrect expectations of how the game would go as a 15-a-side union game. By her own admission, it wasn’t an easy transition.
“It was a struggle for two or three weeks,” Tafuna explained. “But I just started watching a lot of film, watching games from previous Lindenwood seasons, learning. I needed to figure out how to play in the back row.”
Time to Study
Film has continued to be a huge part of Freda Tafuna’s game. Her Head Coach at Lindenwood, Trevor Locke, said Tafuna is always reviewing film and studying the game. She started doing it because she felt she was behind in her rugby knowledge. She continued to do it because she was able to evaluate and make adjustments to her own performance. More of her film study is now on her own games.
It’s interesting that she is so dedicated to studying film because it is a solitary process, and solitary is probably not how one would describe Freda Tafuna.
Family, Community, and Church
Words like “community” and “family” crop up in her conversation frequently. “Church” is another. A member of the LDS Church, Tafuna found counsel on what to do about her future with her friends at church. When she returns to Southern California she always makes a stop at her church in Anaheim as soon as possible.
“My church is most definitely a big part of my life, and they have been there to support me and help me. And my family, my brothers have been there to support me and motivate me when I am down on myself, too.”
That was why when, this past February, when her brother, Meki, died, it shook her world. Tafuna had come back from injury and was enjoying her first truly full season and school year at Lindenwood, and then Meki, 29 and someone Freda looked up to, passed away.
“He was always one of my biggest supporters, always there to give me love,” Tafuna explained quietly. “When he died I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to play with the USA. I would stay with Lindenwood but I just didn’t know if I would go back with the USA. But I also knew he would want me to keep going.”
Before Freda Tafuna even steps on a rugby field, she tapes up her wrists and writes the names of her parents, and Meki, on them. She looks at those names, kisses them, and says a prayer. That prayer is a moment of devotion and thanks for those who put her where she is. She won’t ever forget it.
Top 40 of What?
Through all of this, Freda Tafuna was called up to the USA team last summer. And following that, she received overwhelming support in winning the MA Sorensen Award as the top women’s collegiate player for the 2023-24 season. Considering she had played only really one full season of rugby (if you combine bits of three seasons), it was a remarkable achievement.
“I was with the USA U23 team and then my coach, Trevor Locke, told me I was in the pool for the top 40 players,” Tafuna said in describing how it all shook down. “I thought this was for the top 40 players in college rugby. Then I show up and there’s all these older girls. It was a shock.”
Luckily her cousin and Lindenwood alumnus Eti Hauntgatau was there to set her straight. No, Freda, you’re on the senior national team. She quickly connected with the Polynesian players on the USA team but soon found other mentors in the likes of Rachel Johnson and Catie Benson, who took her under their wing and allowed her to play with that confidence we are used to seeing.
“It’s really been a blessing, all of it,” she said. “I just want to go out there and play the best I can and be an inspiration to young people. When I was in high school I knew sports would be a part of my life but I just through I’d be a normal person doing normal things every day. I never though I would be traveling the world and doing what I do now.”
She might not have thought of it; she might be enormously humble, but everyone else who supports her had to have known there was something special in Freda Tafuna.
Freda Tafuna will officially receive her MA Sorensen Award at the WAC Awards Dinner June 8 at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle.
