“Aye, There’s the Rub!”

As some of my regular guests to my blog might know, I have been involved as a host parent with AFS, through whom my family has welcomed 12 exchange students over the years. Since I have a full house these days with my son, his Fiancée and my grandson living with us, hosting is out for awhile. My way of staying involved has been to be a contact for exchange students and their families to make sure everything is going OK. Last year, I was the contact for Jean, a young man from Perpignan, France( Who played on the state champions team from Plymouth last spring). This year, I am the contact (Liaison) for a young Kiwi, an ethnic Maori named Maniheera, who is attending Minneapolis South High School.

A lot of times, we strongly urge exchange students to take part in a fall sport when they arrive. It’s a way for them to meet American kids from their school and a way to get to know people. Not suprisingly, many students play soccer(football) or Tennis. I know quite a few of the kids we hosted played soccer at Cooper.

Maani, as he likes to be called, was intrigued with the idea of playing American Football. He played as an open side flanker on his rugby club near Auckland, New Zealand. He is a tall, well-built, athletic looking young man. He decided to try playing football at South High. Well, Maani is not only making friends, he is thriving. He is the starting fullback on the offense, and plays defensive end on the defensive side of the ball. (I know for rugby fans, this hyper-specialization of playing positions, is something that is curious, to say the least)

Maani played in his first ever full game on the Varsity(A side) for South last night against Rochester John Marshall. South may have lost, but Maani gained about 70 yards rushing, and had a sack-that is REALLY impressive considering that he had never played this game before.

I have a very hard time imagining an American kid going to New Zealand and being picked on the first XV for a Kiwi school side. What Maani did was really, really impressive.  I know John, the rugby coach for South Metro is salivating like Pavlov’s dog to get him in a #6 or 7 shirt when rugby starts in the spring for high schools in Minnesota, but for right now, he is making an impact on his American football team. That fact that he’s a Maori makes it more interesting, because in my part of the US, we don’t have a lot of people of Pacific Island origin, like Tongans, Samoans and Fijians, so this will be an education for the American kids at his school-and goodness knows that young American kids need all of the education on other parts of the world that they can get.

I think this is an amazing story, and I will be tracking Maani’s story at Minneapolis South from time to time on my blog. He’s a great young man who is a credit to the country that gave us Sir Edmund Hilary, Jonah Lomu and Peter Jackson.