'He's a great representation': Sione Laulea carries the legacy of his grandfather, Alauna, with him on his football journey

“He really tried to quit,” Asinate said. “He didn't. He was fine, and I said, 'Nope. You have to play. You had no choice. You had to play to the end of the season.' And I told him we paid for it, but we didn't.”

About 15 years later, the 6-foot-4 cornerback has been an impactful first-time starter for Mizzou this season. The Oregon transfer has recorded 22 total tackles, four pass deflections and an interception to start his MU career. 

Asinate had an idea that football was her son's calling. It had started when she was pregnant with Sione. She dreamed that he was meant to play football.

Sione’s grandmother, Tangikina Laulea, also had a dream that Sione would find success on the football field. She said an angel visited her, delivering a message. She added that she trusts in the Lord to make the dream come true.

When he first joined a team, the game was too hard for Sione Laulea. It was his grandfather, Alauna Laulea, after seeing Sione reach the end zone for the first time, who nudged him further toward the sport.

“I was like four or five in Pop Warner, didn't really like it. It was too physical. ... I started to like it here and there at about like 6 or 7 years old,” Sione said. “My grandpa had come to one game, scored my first touchdown, and from there he was like, ‘Oh, I'm taking you to every game. I'm gonna make sure you get to every game.’ ”

Alauna Laulea helped ensure Sione made it to practices and games, even if they were on the Christian Sabbath.

“Sundays were the days when mostly the games for Pop Warner (were), and that was something that was kind of hard for him to accept for us to miss church to play football,” Asinate said. “But he made sure Sione would at least attend sacrament before going to his games.”

His grandfather helped him find his passion for football and then to hit his stride as a talented young player. Alauna was a father figure who helped raise Sione. Sione could always hear his booming voice from the stands while he played the game he had come to love. It is a voice he struggles to live without now that he can’t hear it any more.

The grandfather lays the path for a family

Alauna Laulea immigrated to California when he was 19 years old and would do what he could to maintain stability for his family amid the change. He was able to establish himself as a leader in the Tongan community in the state. Of the roughly 75,000 Tongan immigrants in the U.S., about 26,000 live in California.

Sione has always admired Tongan culture. It started with his grandfather.

“The culture and the community are so beautiful, based on loyalty and respect and love,” Sione said. “If you ever fly to the island itself, it's called the, 'Friendly Island.' There are little to no wars going on, not involved, and just the people. It's a beautiful culture, and more than ever since the loss of my grandpa, I feel more in tune with it.”

Alauna ensured Sione embraced his Tongan roots. It all started with the church. Alauna combined three pillars that were at the top of his priorities: his faith, his family and his culture.

“I remember he'd take me to church and force me to only speak Tongan, not English, just to like give off the impression that I'm his child and he loved it,” Sione said. “I remember when my great-grandmother passed, he and I sang a song in Tongan, and everyone was so surprised because, based on my image, you couldn't tell I'm Tongan, in my opinion, and so when I sang in Tongan, then everybody was so confused and they loved it.”

Sione actively passes the love of the culture down to his siblings, cousins and others in the community. When Sione played for College of San Mateo, coach Tim Tulloch saw that in the young cornerback from Mountain View in the Bay Area's Silicon Valley.

“He's a great representation for the younger kids in the community,” Tulloch said. “What was neat was, anytime he went on a visit, he would bring his little cousins or his little siblings and try to help and you know show the way for the younger kids in the Tongan community of what's possible.”

A beacon for a people

Sione grew up in a “strictly Polynesian” household with his mom, Asinate, and three siblings: His older sister, Ola Mae, his brother, Frankie, and his youngest sister, Philomena. Sione learned to speak Tongan and English at the same time. English is now his primary language.

Alauna didn’t like tattoos. He thought the body was a temple. That stemmed from his religious beliefs as a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. He was a mission leader of the Peninsula Third Ward in Redwood City, California. In fact, he was instrumental in the ward’s establishment.

“He would baptize so many people and bring so many people into the church. He became a person that people look up to and always ask for help and guidance, or even just prayer,” Asinate Laulea said.

The ward served as a safe space for the Tongan community to congregate and interact. There, Alauna would bring people in and guide them in their faith and offer advice for their personal lives. According to Herman Laulea, Sione’s uncle and Asinate’s brother, Alauna acted as a beacon in the community.

“He helped establish a ward where Tongan people were able to come worship and gather, and he brought a lot of people in through faith and helped a lot of people, not just strangers, but also his family members, whom he brought himself here from Tonga,” Herman said.

Sione’s grandmother said Aulana's goal was simply to help with Tongans' transitions to a new country.

“The Tongan community, we need to help because most of the people here, our culture, only we know what they need," she said.

Tangikina was a driving force, alongside Alauna, in the desire for Sione to complete a mission trip. In 2021, when Sione and his family were on a visit to College of San Mateo, the hope for Sione to go on a mission trip and his desire to keep playing football came to a crossroads.

“I told him that I want Sione to learn, when you go for your missionary work, physically and spiritually, and that's why I want Sione to serve his mission,” Tangikina Laulea said. “Then the coach told me, we can teach spiritually and physically here too.”

Tangikina Laulea walked away conflicted from that conversation, which led to her talking to her bishop at the Peninsula Third Ward upon her arrival back in Mountain View. Her bishop told her that since he was 18, he could make the decision to play football.

Losing a pillar of the community

Football was what Sione wanted to pursue, so he ended up at College of San Mateo to start his college football career. He had Alauna by his side through four of those seasons. Alauna wasn’t able to see Sione play in a Mizzou uniform. He died June 29, 2026, from a battle with soft-tissue sarcoma that develops on the wall of the digestive tract known as a GIST tumor. The tumor first appeared in 2022 and was removed in November of 2025, but reappeared in May of 2026.

“Losing him was a lot. It was very hard for me. It kind of made this the hardest part of my life, realistically,” Sione said. “Our coaches, my teammates, they all surrounded me with love and support.”

He was such a crucial part of Sione’s life in a variety of ways. Alauna was with him when he first started in Pop Warner. Just like Alauna was with Sione at the very beginning, Sione was with Alauna at his end. Sione sat in the room, just himself and Alauna, as his inspiration died.

Sione attended Junipero Serra High School, also located in San Mateo.

He was coached by Patrick Walsh at Junipero Serra. The coach, who has been there since 2001, saw Sione’s development in high school. It took some time for Sione to get going as a football player, having multitasked that and track and field, but once he came into his own, Walsh knew what he had.

“He was kind of a late bloomer for us, but a fantastic athlete, nonetheless, kind of looked like more of a track runner,” Walsh said. “He still looks like a track runner right now, but by the time his senior year came around, we knew we had someone really, really special as a football player.”

Out of high school, Sione was a three-star recruit ranked No. 2,202 in the country in the class of 2022. Laulea played 20 games at College of San Mateo, recording 15 total tackles and an interception in his first year and 27 total tackles, a sack and an interception in his second year.

After two seasons at San Mateo under Tulloch, he committed to Oregon as the second-best JUCO prospect in the class of 2024. He had offers from highly touted programs outside of Oregon, like Utah, Penn State, Miami, USC, Arizona, BYU and others.

His only offer out of high school was from Sacramento State, according to 247Sports.

Traveling the Oregon Trail in reverse

Sione had two choppy seasons with the Ducks, facing an uphill battle against a talented cornerback room and injuries. He dealt with a shoulder injury during his 2025 season. Once that season was over, he hit the transfer portal.

Looking for his third college, Laulea committed to Mizzou on Jan. 14. After only playing six games for the Ducks in 2025, a change of scenery was needed so he could see the field more. That’s where the Tigers came into play.

“I was thinking strictly about ball and not about relationships or anything like that,” Sione said. “I was just thinking (about) where could I go play some football at the highest level and get to the next level.”

Sione didn’t know how sick his grandfather was until late into the diagnosis. He endured multiple trips to the hospital, ones in which he’d leave days later. Asinate alerted Sione over the phone when things had taken a turn, allowing him to drop what he was doing in Columbia and head back to California.

Asinate didn’t tell Sione that his grandpa was sick until November 2025.

It was the summer and Sione was able to drop what he was doing and leave Columbia, where he’d arrived in January of 2026, to go see his grandfather and be with his mother, among others.

“Everything just paused. I couldn't think, I couldn't talk,” Sione said. “I just dropped a couple tears, and I told my coaches and my people around me, 'Hey, I'm going home. I'll be back. I gotta go home. I gotta go see him.' So I flew home and I went to go see him.”

The fear of not being able to see Alauna one more time was a challenging one to wrestle with while flying back to California. Sione managed to stay multiple days at the hospital with his gramps before his passing and was able to speak with him, though Alauna couldn’t talk back.

Alauna instilled plenty of wisdom and faith into his close circle and was a man of faith, love and kindness. His direct relation to the LDS church acted as a driving force in his life. He helped pass it down to his descendants.

The passing of Alauna is a test for the family’s faith. The distance between Sione and his family certainly hasn’t made that test any easier, but it is bringing them closer.

“I'm just so grateful for his faith, and always trying to help us get through it,” Asinate said. “We're trying to be strong for him, but he's actually trying to be strong for us during this whole process.”

The loss of Alauna has left a hole in the hearts of his family and those around him. It’s also created an opening in their everyday lives. A group chat was even formed with the homes of coming closer together, including Sione, his four uncles and his two sisters.

“We started up a group chat. Never had a group chat with our family, and from there we were talking about all the things we need to do,” Sione said. “Obviously, I'm out here, but they're saying how much they need to see each other, be around each other, just because with the loss of him, they have to fill it with something else.”

Rolling with the changes 

Sione’s life has changed plenty since he started his college path. He’s on his third school since 2022 and has moved from California to Oregon to Missouri. He left Oregon to earn more playing time and San Mateo to further advance his football career. Those paths have led him to Columbia.

The death of Sione’s grandpa has been hard for him for a variety of reasons.

“Sione was so attached to him because that was the only father figure that he had,” Herman said. “He didn't have anyone else that could play that role and be that person for him. I know that it is taking a toll on him, and that he is still grieving because we are all still grieving this loss, and it affects all of us very deeply.”

As the family grieves, time is helping Sione as he moves not only through his football journey, but the processing of the loss.

“I'm nowhere near healed, but (I’m) kind of at peace with knowing that he's in a better place and that he feels better,” Sione said. “So I think that kind of eases my mind in a way.”

Sione got his first tattoo when he was 13 years old and Alauna did not approve of it, though he understood Sione could make his own decisions. When Sione showed him his most recent addition, his reaction was different.

Sione had a photo of Alauna in the stands while attending a game of his at College of San Mateo etched into his skin on the left side of his chest, right where his heart lies. When Sione lifted his shirt at their family home to show his grandpa back in April, his reaction was acceptance.

Sione uses that as a reminder of what he lost and what he will always have with him.

“It means a lot to me just because every day I wake up, I see what means the most to me and why I keep going,” he said.