Inside The Huskies

Hawaii Linebacker By Way of Utah Reveals Offer from Huskies

Tausili Akana goes where the high school football is and watches his recruitment remain steady.

Dan Raley

Tausili Akana is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound outside linebacker with a lot of range. After all, he was raised in Hawaii but he played his sophomore season of high school football in Utah.

He did this because the island school systems canceled all sports for 2020-21 over pandemic concerns.

Back in Kahuku, which is located on the northern tip of the island of Oahu, Akana is waiting to see whether he has to return to the mainland once more to continue his schoolboy football career as a junior.

Either way, the colleges seem to know where this class of 2023 prosepct is at all times. Akana holds 15  scholarship offers now, tweeting out his latest one on Friday — from the University of Washington.

He played football this last fall in Heber City, which is located in Utah's Wasatch Mountains, not far from Park City. Relocating to keep his football recruitment intact, he lived with relatives. He's prepared to come back if Hawaii doesn't restart football next fall.

Akana remains highly attractive to recruiters, who include USC, Oregon, Nebraska and Oklahoma State, because of his extra-long size and speed. He blocked four kicks for Heber City and played tight end for the first time. 

He has a sister, Keonilei, who originally signed to play volleyball for USC but drew her release once the Trojans had a coaching change, and she now competes for Nebraska.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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