Tausinga Misses Chance to be the Senior

Salote Tausinga has always been one of the youngest players on the team, but that’s the consequence of pushing one’s standard. The Sacramento native started playing in elementary school with the boys, joined the high school team in 8th grade, and at the USA level has consistently appeared alongside teammates who are her senior. Tausinga has been in the game for nearly a decade, and she hasn’t even graduated high school yet.

Rugby is embedded in the Tausinga family. Salote’s father and uncles played, and so did her two older sisters. She was lured into boots around age eight.

“Rugby was always my number-one sport,” Tausinga said. “I started playing with the high school team when I was in 8th grade. Before that, I was playing soccer, but I was getting too many yellow cards, and that gets boring.”

The Sacramento Amazons are physicality incarnate, and by the time Tausinga joined the U18 side, a big push for a hard, but skilled game had taken hold. As an 8th grader, she played alongside teammates like older sister Mele, Eti Haungatau, MaryJane Pasioles, Ana Polalau, Jaida Kafovalu and more as they cultivated a punishing, creative style.

“My 8th grade year, I was too young to play at [the High School National Invitational Tournament], but I was there,” Tausinga recalled the spring 2016 tournament at Central Washington University, where Sacramento beat Fallbrook in the final. “Getting to watch the whole thing play out in front of me and seeing the excitement on everyone’s faces – that was memorable.”

It wasn’t long before Tausinga was achieving her own milestones. As a rising high school freshman (summer 2016), she was selected to the Girls’ High School All-American (GHSAA) U16s for the East assembly against Canadian Ontario Storm in Maryland.

“That first time, I kind of felt like I didn’t know much, like I was a straggler,” Tausinga said. “But everyone was so welcoming, so that helped a lot, and then everything fell into place. But at first it was hard. I thought, ‘There’s no way I could do this. They’re all so strong and knowledgeable about the game.’”

Emilie Bydwell, the USA Rugby Women’s High Performance General Manager, talked down Tausinga’s misgivings and remains an influential coach and mentor to this day.

“Whenever I tell her I can’t do stuff, she always tells me that I have the talent and that I’m here for a reason. To just focus on myself,” she said. “She never lets me doubt myself. Most of the time when I mess up it’s because I’m really tired and she says, ‘It’s OK, that’s something we can work on.’”

And then rugby 7s featured in the 2016 Olympics, and Tausinga watched as Amazon alumna Joanne (Nana) Fa’avesi represented Team USA in Rio.

“Nana was a big part of it,” Tausinga said of role models who impacted her goals. “Just seeing that someone from our area could go so far and get to the highest level, it was amazing to see.”

Tausinga decided to push. She followed her older sisters’ examples, played for select sides and all-star programs, and continued to take opportunities with the now-named USA U18s. As a freshman, she joined the GHSAA 7s team for its first appearance at the Tropical 7s and that summer played center for the 15s team against Canada’s U18s in Ottawa.

Sophomore year, Tausinga represented the U.S. at the Youth Olympic Games qualifier in Las Vegas and kept up with 7s during the summer’s Futures 7s event in Saranac, N.Y. She also attended the first USA 15s high performance camp after the 2017 World Cup and was the only invitee returning to high school in the fall (three others had just graduate high school).

“I’m used to it by now,” Tausinga said of being the youngest. “When I started off, my nickname was ‘baby,’ because I was still in 8th grade when I first started with the high school team. It followed me.”

However, her role with her home club began to shift as she entered junior year. She started teaching the younger girls, all of whom familiarize themselves with the high school players while on the middle school team. Tausinga indicated that there is a lot of contact between the high school and middle school teams, so the transition to the U18 squad eases.

Tausinga was among peers in the Hawk Eye 7s program, which targets U20s with USA 7s potential but invests in players year-round as opposed to event-based development. She joined the feeder in summer 2018 and was one of several high schoolers at the February 2019 camp, but the junior was still the youngest. That assembly was intense and culminated with scrimmages against the USA Falcons readying for the LVI.

“That was very eye-opening,” Tausinga said. “We were training so hard and I was dying at one practice. ‘Can I do this every day?’ But then me and a couple other girls just talked to one of the residents and they let us know that yes, it’s hard, but all the hard work is worth it in the end.”

A different kind of work followed, as Tausinga tore her labrum and underwent surgery in April 2019. That knocked out the summer and senior fall, but she was back on the scene less than a year after her injury.

“I was so scared for first contact,” said Tausinga, who featured in the Hawk Eye camp in January. “I had my strength in my shoulder – I was cleared and everything – but there was that thought in my head, ‘One wrong move and I could tear it again.’”

Tausinga indicated that her body has held up but that she still deals with the mental challenge that a fresh injury and rehab can bring. No one would have guessed as much, however, watching the USA Falcons at the LAI 7s in late February. Joining a senior cast of 7s residents, capped Eagles and collegians, the lone high schooler used her first touch of the ball to test the contact point with a massive collision. Her defender bounced off of the attempted tackle, Tausinga kept her feet and kept moving.

“It’s a whole new rush I’ve never experienced before,” Tausinga reflected on LAI 7s with the Falcons. “But at first I was really scared. I didn’t want to mess up and disappoint the coach or my teammates. The first day I was frustrated, like I wasn’t doing so well. But I came around the second day and did way better, and a lot of it was because I talked to the residents and they helped me with some of the little things that I wasn’t understanding.”

Tausinga scored two tries in the LAI 7s semifinals, setting up the Falcons for a berth to the stadium and championship title.

“That experience was very amazing. I learned so much and I bonded so much with the girls and all the residents,” Tausinga said. “I shared a room with Alena Olsen and her knowledge of the game is incredible. One night we had just watched film and were going to sleep, and she said, ‘How do you feel about the game?’ We discussed what we thought could have gone better, and she’s just always thinking about the game. I wasn’t used to that, but I liked it.”

Tausinga then returned to Sacramento and fielded inquires from her younger teammates, whose main intrigue always centers around the game or camp’s level of difficulty. She was excited to come back from injury, ready the team for a successful spring, and build to a final NIT run with years-long teammates.

“This year’s team is both young and experienced, because we build off our middle school team and even younger. We have the U8s around just to get to know the high school girls, so when they’re at this level everyone knows each other,” Tausinga said.

“Last year we focused on conditioning and preparing for nationals, but this year we’re structured, and a lot of it is thanks to our head coach, Wayne [Koi]. He’s always positive and never lets negativity get in the way,” she added. “This year’s team was shaping up to be stronger than last year just because we also gained a couple of freshmen from the middle school team last year.”

Tausinga didn’t play much at the NorCal Kickoff Tournament so that newcomers could get more field time, and then she sat out the season-opener. COVID-19 then intervened and before everyone knew it, the entire spring season was canceled.

“It hurt a lot,” Tausinga said. “I was playing my last year with some of the girls and it was something I was really looking forward to. I lost a lot.

“I’d tell them to keep working hard and just remember the name that they represent, and to always play for the team and not the crowd,” the senior offered advice to her teammates who have more time with the Amazons. “Keep the sisterhood that we have, because it helps a lot and it makes us who we are.”

There’s also a strong tradition of Amazons (Fa’avesi, Eti Haungatau) in Chula Vista, and Tausinga intends to further that trend.

“I want to go into residency and go to college online,” Tausinga said of post-high school plans. “I was looking at it even before [LAI 7s] but I think that experience just added on. We don’t have many camps until then so we’re working on fitness and stuff at home.”

Rugby action is silent these days, but when it resumes publicly, expect Tausinga to play a familiar role: One of the youngest, and raring to go.

#SaloteTausinga Sacramento