Athlete of the Week: Menlo-Atherton’s Dane Fifita

Fifita ran brilliantly — be it past, over or through Mack defenders — to put on a show of remarkable strength for his best performance as a Bear to date. The senior racked up 163 total yards, including 127 rushing on 15 carries, with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead the Bears back from a 13-point deficit.

“Dane was amazing,” MacLeod said. “We had plays that would look like disaster, but he would just make plays. So, yeah, Dane’s a beast — a complete beast.”

It’s Fifita’s “beast mode” that has earned him Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors. If there were a quantifiable statistic for breaking tackles in varsity football, Fifita would have surely set the program record Friday. At 5-7, 200 pounds, his commitment to weightlifting while attending three different high schools in four years came to bear against a previously undefeated Mack team, one that hadn’t lost a regular-season game since 2018.

“If you watch him do power clings all summer, this is what we thought was going to happen,” said Chris Saunders, M-A’s head coach, who was out of action Friday due to emergency dental surgery earlier in the day and watched the game from home via webcast. “When he came to us, we were amazed at who he was and how his body is composed. And he’s got the mental factor — no excuses for anything. You couple that up with his stature and strength, that’s what you get.”

Fifita’s high school career started at Carlmont, where he played as a freshman and sophomore. His two brothers Siafa and Kaukauola, both two years older, played at Carlmont. So, when he was promoted to the varsity Scots as a freshman during the Central Coast Section playoffs, it was a big eye-opener for the third brother to join the roster.

“That just taught me a lot,” Fifita said. “It taught me to just be humble because it meant a lot, just to move up to varsity and be able to play with them.”

While at Carlmont, Fifita took to weightlifting with a passion. It’s a staple of the Carlmont football program, first under former head coach Jake Messina, and now under second-year head coach Eric Rado. The two coaches are renowned for referring to their players — whenever asked about an individual standout — hitting the weight room.

Well, Carlmont’s Olympic-style weight room is quite advanced compared to many other high schools, Fifita said.

“Their weightlifting program is fantastic,” Fifita said. “They taught me a lot. They taught me to be consistent with what I do and that’s brought me a long way, which you can see now.”

As a junior in 2020, Fifita transferred to a Utah high school. He relocated to a Salt Lake City suburb and played at West Valley City High, where he doubled as a rugby player. It was something he had done the previous two years as well; he also played rugby at M-A as a freshman and sophomore, as it is a club sport, and Carlmont did not have a team.

Playing rugby in West Valley City had special significance for Fifita, though, as he was living with his uncle Aisea Nai, a rugby enthusiast who taught Fifita the sport as a boy. Fifita moved back to his family home in East Palo Alto in December 2020. A month later, in January, Nai died after a battle with heart disease at age 52.

After Fifita returned home, he enrolled at M-A. And while he was not allowed to play varsity football in the spring, he did play a second rugby season as a junior. This was allowed since it is an unofficial club sport. He ultimately played 25 games as a junior between West Valley City and M-A.

“Living in East Palo Alto, it’s very different,” Fifita said. “It really pushes you to really thrive to seek a better future and want better things. And that’s what pushes me, seeing my family like that.”

Fifita’s big finish Friday night almost didn’t happen though. With the Bears trailing 27-14 with less than nine minutes to go in regulation, Fifita took the first carry of the comeback effort, sweeping around the left side for a 41-yard pickup. After breaking several tackles on the pickup, he was brought down at the 13, where he felt his ankle pop.

He came off the field for two plays to have the ankle tended to and reentered to score on a 1-yard blast to cut the deficit to 27-21.

“It was just the adrenaline that kept me going,” Fifita said. “So, I didn’t feel nothing at all until later on.”

Fifita helped get the Bears the ball back with good field position — he totaled four tackles out of the linebacker position on defense — and M-A went on the march again, culminating in his game-tying 1-yard run. While kicker Juan Pulido’s point-after try hit the upright, the Bears would ultimately win it in overtime on Pulido’s 22-yard field goal.

“It means a lot knowing that we never gave up,” Fifita said. “We just kept going. We knew that game was our win, so we never stopped.”

And even though Saunders was at home recovering from dental surgery — where he was supposed to be minding his blood pressure and heart rate — the thrilling finish showcased a side of Fifita’s game that did not surprise M-A’s second-year head coach.

“I think it speaks for itself,” Saunders said. “We’re still going through some learning curves up front. … We have four juniors on the offensive line, they’re still coming into their own … so having Dane, a guy who runs through contact, it makes a big difference.”