An
unlikely friendship
For an
8-year-old boy in Albion, backup defensive end Logan Tago is the WSU football
team's MVP
By DALE
GRUMMERT
Lewiston
Trib
12/25/2017
SAN DIEGO
- For Logan Tago, it started out as "community service," a way of
making amends for something he believes never should have happened.
Every
Monday afternoon, the Washington State defensive lineman from American Samoa
would climb into a car with a group of other redemption seekers for a 7-mile
drive from their Pullman campus to the tiny, gravelly town of Albion. There
they would interact with young children in a WSU-sponsored after-school
program, helping them with homework and coordinating physical activities in the
gym.
Early on
Tago's first day in this program, he was approached by a small tow-headed boy
with a winning smile, who took a good look at him and ventured, "Are you a
football player?"
That was
the beginning of Tago's unlikely friendship with Markus Hauck, now 8, who
remains close to the Cougar athlete nearly a year later, to the surprise and
gratitude of the boy's single mother. Tago's support of her son has gone well
beyond community service.
"The
bond was crazy," Cosette Hauck said. "I was just amazed how far above
and beyond Logan went."
With the
harsh demands on college football players' time, Tago hasn't been able to pay
frequent visits to Markus the past few months as the Cougars crafted a 9-3
season and earned a berth in the Holiday Bowl, where they play Michigan State
on Thursday (6 p.m., FS1) at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego.
But he and
Markus text, speak on the phone and sometimes video-chat - conversations that
are like godsends to Cosette Hauck. She moved to the Palouse from Prescott,
Wash., three years ago to get special-needs education for another son,
6-year-old Ramsey, who is autistic. Cosette also has a 4-year-old daughter, and
raising the three children has been especially challenging after a divorce two
years ago.
At the
time he met Tago, Markus was struggling in school a bit and trying to come to
grips with his role as the oldest child, at age 7. His brother, though
endearing, is prone to persistent tantrums. Ramsey has also grown a little
taller than Markus, a sore point for a boy who's frequently teased at school
for his small stature.
"Markus
has come home crying several times, and he has called Logan," Cosette
Hauck said. "And Logan calls him back. 'It can be tough when you're
younger, and kids can be mean,' he says, 'but you'll be fine.' He tries to give
him a pick-me-up, and he does it. He's been huge for us."
Their bond
is partly a fondness for football, said Tago, who is courteous and reserved in
the manner of many Polynesian football players for whom English is a second
language. But he speaks unreservedly on the topic of Markus.
"That
first day, he asked me if I was a football player," he recalled recently.
"I said yeah, and he was so pumped. He was excited. He was, like, 'I want
to be a football player, I want to be like you so bad.' I used to go every week
for the after-school program. Every time I walked into the room, he'd run to me
and hug me.
"I
want to reach out to people that need help," he said, "but this
Markus thing came out of nowhere. I didn't expect that. I didn't expect our
bond would be that strong."
At that
point, he was known by the public primarily as a Wazzu football player who got
singled out by police after an alleged late-night assault and robbery on
Pullman's College Hill in June 2016. Accounts of the incident vary widely, but
Tago wound up accepting a plea bargain for third-degree assault and was
sentenced to 30 days in jail and 240 hours of community service.
"That
was my first time ever (dealing with something like that)," Tago said.
"I can't live in the past. If I do, it's not the right story. I'm moving
on. My family knows me. I'm not that person."
As a
junior this year, Tago is starting to rewrite his story. A backup end on the Cougars'
stellar defensive line, he has made 22 tackles, including three for loss, and
is tied with Hercules Mata'afa for second on the team with five quarterback
hurries.
Markus,
too, was a defensive end in 2017, playing with mostly older, larger boys on a
successful recreation tackle team called the Greyhounds. He wore jersey No. 1
because that was Tago's number as a youngster.
"We
lost one game all season," Markus said. "It was because we messed up
our stance. They did a pass, we thought they would run and they got a
touchdown. We played them again and we won."
He's also
doing much better in school, according to Cosette Hauck.
"He's
just happier," she said. "He doesn't care that he's smaller. He
doesn't care that he's being pulled out (for academic reasons) anymore."
Tago, who
was always one of the big kids, can't directly relate to Markus' size issues -
or at least he couldn't until this season, when he moved from rush linebacker
to DE, where he's undersized at 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds.
But he can
relate to the Haucks' life in the mostly low-income community of Albion, which
reminds him in some ways of Samoa. One of six children in his family, he took
long bus rides to school and, if football practice ran late, walked more than
10 miles home.
"It's
a blessing for me, to do things for the community," he said. "People
in Albion, I've heard they don't have that much. We didn't have that much. For
a kid from the island, it's the same thing. It relates to my story."
Daniel
Ekuale, another WSU defensive lineman from Samoa, said Tago's generosity is of
a piece with island culture.
"That's
how we Poly's grew up - we're just very friendly with everybody, even if we
don't know them," he said.
A
sports-management major, Tago is thinking about pursuing a career in coaching,
inspired by former WSU assistant Joe Salave'a, the man responsible for
shepherding numerous Polynesians to Pullman. Tago said his rapport with Markus
has boosted his confidence that he can play a mentor's role in the manner of
Salave'a.
"He's
a great guy with a good heart," WSU coach Mike Leach said.
Even
during football season, Tago has found ways to maintain his connection with
Markus. He gave him tickets to the Cougars' season-opening shutout of Montana
State, and the Haucks sat with the parents of linebacker Peyton Pelluer,
another of Markus' favorite Cougs. It was the first time he'd seen the team
play in person.
Last
Tuesday, with classes done for the semester and a holiday laxity settling into
the often buttoned-up world of WSU football, Tago took Markus on a grand tour
of the normally off-limits Cougar Football Complex.
The boy
posed for locker-room photos with Tago, Pelluer, quarterback Luke Falk and many
others. He met several assistant coaches and scored little desktop gifts from
them. Then, as Samoan center Fred Mauigoa watched with a curious smile, Markus
and Tago ducked outside to play catch for several minutes in an empty Martin
Stadium.
"Best
day ever," Markus reported to his mother.
Markus,
too, bestowed a gift that day - for Tago, of course, tucked into a Christmas
stocking the athlete took home and examined later. It was a leather bracelet
with a wooden cross, and it matches one that Markus himself owns.
Markus
explained the meaning later: He and Tago are best friends.
…………..
So far,
everything different for Cougs on this Holiday
By DALE
GRUMMERT Trib of Lewiston
SAN DIEGO
- The Cougars are playing in the Holiday Bowl for the second straight year. So
far, though, everything seems different.
The hotel,
the practice site, the weather, the name of the game venue - all these things
are new to Washington State, which can only hope to change the outcome as well
when it faces Michigan State on Thursday night at SDCCU Stadium, formerly known
as Qualcomm.
The
Cougars lost 17-12 to Minnesota in the 2016 Holiday Bowl.
"We've
just got to handle some business," defensive lineman Daniel Ekuale said
after the Cougars' first San Diego-area practice Sunday. "We didn't get it
done last year. I think we have a chip on our shoulder on what we need to get
done this year."
The
Cougars gave positive reviews to their new practice venue, DeVore Stadium on
the campus of the two-year Southwestern College in Chula Vista, south of San Diego.
Last year they practiced at another junior college, Mesa, in the Clairemont
community.
"This
is a facility that nearly everybody could be jealous of," WSU coach Mike
Leach said of DeVore. "First of all, they've got a great flat field. I
think their stands are awesome. Their locker rooms, if you've been in there,
are excellent, just the quality of it, the space, the way it's laid out. Heck,
this is better than a significant number of Division I facilities."
As the
visiting team on the scoreboard this year, the Cougars have also switched
waterfront hotels, and the 60- to 70-degree weather has lightened the mood at
practice. Rain and sloppy conditions were themes of last year's visit to San
Diego.
Also
different is the featured off-the-field activity organized by the bowl. This
year the Cougars visit SeaWorld today while Michigan State explores the San
Diego Zoo.
"I
was kind of really excited, because now we can see the experience from both
sides," said WSU tailback Jamal Morrow, a Southern Californian who spent
some time in San Diego as a child. "To be able to see both sides of the
Holiday Bowl is pretty cool, and we're excited for the festivities they have
for us the rest of the week. I'm a big SeaWorld guy."
The
Cougars will visit a battleship for the second year in a row, but this time
it's the USS Essex rather than the USS America. That will be Tuesday, and it's
a shared visit with Michigan State.
………….
COLLEGE
FOOTBALL
Michigan
State offense will be led by inconsistent first-year QB Brian Lewerke in
Holiday Bowl
Sun., Dec.
24, 2017, 4:41 p.m.
By Jim
Allen of the Spokesman-Review of Spokane/Inland Empiere
How
unthinkable is this?
Luke Falk
– the all-time passing leader in Pac-12 history – could be the “other
quarterback” in the Holiday Bowl against Michigan State.
Explosive
and prolific as they are, Falk and Washington State’s Air Raid offense are a
known commodity. Even against a stout MSU defense, the Cougars should get their
points and yards.
That’s not
true of Michigan State sophomore Brian Lewerke, a first-year starter who is
anything but predictable.
Scintillating
in one game and stumbling in the next, Lewerke is the wild card in an
intriguing matchup with the Cougars defense. Which version shows up could have
a big impact on Thursday’s game at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego.
Full of
potential after playing in four games last year, Lewerke drew rare preseason
praise from 11th-year coach Mark Dantonio, who compared him to MSU standouts
Kirk Cousins and Connor Cook.
“He’s got
a great arm, he’s very cool under pressure,” Dantonio said. “He knows our
players very well, knows things schematically. … He has all the attributes that
we need to be an outstanding, championship-type quarterback.”
Backed by
a tough MSU defense and a solid running game, the 6-foot-3, 212-pounder from
Phoenix is more of a game manager than Falk.
For the
season, Lewerke has completed 233 passes out of 396 attempts, for 58.8 percent,
with 2,580 yards, 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
He’s also
a good runner, with 486 yards and five scores.
Those are
solid numbers, but they mean little because Lewerke seldom has an average game
in this season. Then again, MSU’s offense isn’t even average – the Spartans
rank 91st in total offense and 105th in scoring offense with just 23 points a
game (WSU averages 31).
In the
first quarter of his first big game, a 38-18 loss to Notre Dame, he turned a
third-and-1 quarterback sneak into a 52-yard run to set up a TD pass. A few
series later, he fumbled at his own 23 while scrambling.
Playing
from behind all day, Lewerke was 31 of 51 for 340 yards, but MSU never got back
in the game.
MSU (9-3)
won the next four games, but surpassed 20 points in just one of them. However,
one was a 14-10 win at Michigan, where Lewerke managed just 94 yards passing
but ran for 64 and a TD.
Lewerke
can fling it too. His best games came back to back: a triple-overtime, 39-31
loss at Northwestern in which he was 39 of 57 for 445 yards and four TDs, and a
27-24 upset of No. 7 Penn State that saw Lewerke complete 33 of 56 passes for
400 yards and two more scores.
The next week,
Lewerke’s arm was in ice, the product of 113 passes in two games.
“Am I
comfortable throwing that many times?” Dantonio said after the Penn State game.
“As long as we don’t have a lot of interceptions, yeah.”
A week
later, the Spartans crashed 48-3 at Ohio State and Lewerke was 18 of 36 for
only 131 yards and two interceptions.
……………………
Schulz has
delivered, now Coug fans must deliver for him
Time left
to get donation tax benefit for 2017!
By Glenn
Osterhout –
Cougfan.com
WSU
PRESIDENT Kirk Schulz is investing an extra $1.3 million in Mike Leach and his
assistant coaches next football season and with the NCAA’s green light for the
addition of a 10th assistant you can tack on another $200,000-plus to the staff
total. That's the price of doing business at the Power 5 level and it should
serve as a clarion call to Washington State alums and fans that competing among
the elite is not just a spectator sport.
In
addition to football, Schulz has approved new retention packages for coaches in
WSU’s highly successful soccer (NCAA Sweet 16), volleyball (NCAA Tourney second
round the last two years) and cross country (top 20 in the nation) programs.
Bottom
line, Schulz has stepped up to make sure WSU is a consistent player in the Pac-12.
This
commitment to outstanding coaches, coupled with his aggressive plan to build a
new Indoor Practice Facility in 12-18 months after nearly a decade of the
blueprints collecting dust, is a clear statement that Schulz is dead serious
about excellence in WSU athletics. He wants to compete for Pac-12
championships.
As CF.C
noted in this column a week ago, the thinking is sound: investing in athletics
produces huge fundraising and marketing benefits across the university.
Schulz has
delivered for Cougar Nation. Now it’s our turn.
AS FANS,
ALUMS AND FRIENDS OF THE UNIVERSITY, we need to reward Schulz’ commitment by
elevating our game from what, frankly, is pretty much at a Mountain West level.
We have covered the numbers before, but annual donations to the Cougar Athletic
Fund total just $6.5 million — which creates a massive hole in the athletic
department’s operating budget. The average donation of the 7,500 members of the
CAF comes out to $833. By contrast, Land Grant peers Oregon State and Kansas State
average $2,200 or more per donation.
In short,
we need to increase both the number of donors and the size of the average
donation.
To put our
average gift and number of donors into perspective consider that the bulk of
our alumni reside in one of the best economies in the country and we have
214,000 alumni.
To donate
to the Cougar Athletic Fund click here.
NOW LET'S
TALK MORE ABOUT THE IPF FOR A MOMENT. Since we don’t compete against Utah
State, Wyoming or New Mexico, but we do compete with Washington, Stanford, USC
and Oregon we must have a modern indoor practice facility. Both Washington and Oregon have
state-of-the-art indoor facilities which provide a significant advantage in
recruiting for all sports.
President
Schulz is committed to raising the money to build a new indoor practice
facility at WSU, but the funds must come from all of us! It’s also important to note again that the
indoor practice facility will benefit all sports not just football as it will
allow our athlete’s to train year round.
If you
have questions regarding the IPF or major gifts please contact a member of the
WSU fundraising team.
In
conclusion, I have several questions for all WSU alumni and friends:
Do you
like winning?
Do you
love attending games or watching the Cougs on TV when we beat Stanford and USC?
Do you
like the feeling of strutting to the office or around town after a big win?
Do you
appreciate the value of your degree increasing as we win?
If the
answers are yes, there is a value to all of us for successful athletic
programs. If we want that sense of pride
to continue we all need to follow President Schulz lead, bring out the
competitive nature in all of us and support WSU athletics!
RELATED
COLUMN: Leach's Tennessee waltz a reminder that Coug fans must Swing their
Wallets
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR: Glenn Osterhout is a wealth manager in Bellevue who graduated from WSU
in 1982. He is chairman of CougsFirst!, and has donated large sums to WSU
athletics to, among other things, name the recruiting suite in the Cougar
Football Complex after Steve Gleason and the Gray W Lounge in the Complex after
Jack Thompson. He is a periodic columnist for Cougfan.com.
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