‘Oh my God, was he electric’

“In (20)06 and ’07, he was just fabulous,” said Sell, who coached Pohahau through high school. “Not only was he a great player, but joyful. He was an incredibly fun kid to coach. Just loved every bit about him.

“I’m deeply saddened by this.”

Pohahau was a sophomore when he made his varsity debut during the 2005 season —  a team that featured Dominic Williams and Matangi Tonga, two of the best players at Aragon over the last two decades. Pohahau saw spot duty his sophomore year, but moved into a starting role his junior year, starring at both tailback and a hybrid linebacker/defensive back spot defensively. He rushed for 1,500 yards and 23 touchdowns as a junior and set a personal record when he rushed for 235 yards and three touchdowns in a 24-14 win over Menlo-Atherton Nov. 5, 2006, to help clinch a share of Aragon’s fourth Bay Division title in a row.

“He was dangerous on the (quarterback) bootleg and getting the ball out in the flat. I can picture our first touchdown against M-A in the semis (2007 CCS Large School Division, a 41-28 M-A win) and he just ran away from everybody,” Sell said. “After playing a game against Menlo, when they had Jerry Rice Jr., (then head coach Mark) Newton came up to me and said, ‘Man, Steve. I think he’s the best I’ve seen.’

“Oh my God, was he electric. I would catch myself watching some of his old highlight film, just in awe.”

In his senior season, 2007, Pohahau ran for 1,937 yards and scored 21 times, helping earn him the Daily Journal’s Football Player of the Year honor.

“The greatest feeling in life is when I’m on that football field,” Pohahau said during a 2007 interview for the Player of the Year story. “Football gives me a lot of energy. I can be very tired, but once I put the pads on, all that goes away. My dad told me if you don’t have that love or passion for the game, you shouldn’t be playing. I’ve always loved the game, so getting pumped up has never been a problem for me.”

Pohahau initially orally committed to BYU in the summer of his senior season, but did not meet the eligibility requirements. He would eventually play the 2009-2010 seasons at College of San Mateo before finishing up his career at NAIA school Central Methodist University in Missouri.

Coming out of Aragon, however, it was no slam dunk Pohahau would be a running back. Sell recounted one story during the 2007 Central Coast Section playoffs against Pioneer, which ran a similar offense to the Dons.

“(Aragon assistant coach Ed) Larios said, ‘You have to read the guards. Read the guards and they’ll lead you to the football,’” Sell said.

Pohahau, meanwhile, was having a monster game defensively. At halftime, Dons’ assistant and former longtime head coach Britt Williams talked to Pohahau at halftime.

“How’s it reading those guards?” Sell said Williams asked. “Seta kind of looked at him and said, ‘I’m not doing that. I’m just finding the ball and tackling the runner.’

“That’s one of the few times you go, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Sell said.

When Pohahau decided to enroll and play at CSM, then-defensive coordinator and current head coach Tim Tulloch asked Sell which side of the ball Pohahau should play.

“We always ask (their high school coaches where they think they should play). [Pohahau] could have played anywhere. He could have played five, six positions,” Tulloch said. “I asked Steve, ‘Alright, Steve, what do you think?’ And Steve was, like, ‘Feed the kid the ball.’

“He would control games (for us) and wear teams down. Feed it to Seta and he would close it out for us.”

During his sophomore season at CSM, Pohahau led the state in yards per carry, averaging 8.1 yards every time he touched the ball.

As good a football player Pohahau was, both Sell and Tulloch said he was equally as good as a teammate and a person. Sell spent countless hours with Pohahau, trying to get him eligible for Division I college football his freshman year. They still fell a little bit short, but Sell was willing to do what he could to get Pohahau to the next level.

“You spend so much time with these kids and invest so much, there develops a kinship … that goes beyond a student-teacher relationship. … For a lot of kids, you help them get through high school, the peaks and valleys of high school,” Sell said. “It comes with a share of heartache when you hear about these kind of things. You spend so much time and emotion with these kids.”

Tulloch said one of the first things he noticed when he went to the Pohahau family home during a recruiting visit was how big family was in their lives and, given the family atmosphere of a football team, Tulloch thought he would fit in perfectly with the CSM program.

“He was cut from a different cloth. His parents are amazing. I remember the first time going to do a home visit, sitting down with his dad and family and just how family-oriented (Pohahau) was. Once he joined our football family, he brought those values with him,” Tulloch said. “Seta made coaching fun. He just did. He made it fun coming to work every day. He made practice fun. He made teammates laugh and come together.

“We have a motto, ‘Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.’ He was a true Bulldog and always will be.”