University Southern California Trojans
Hawai'i Game Very Special To Faaesea Mailo
August 30, 1999 | Football
Aug. 30, 1999
LOS ANGELES - There are homecomings and then there is what USC offensive lineman Faaesea Mailo will be going through when USC plays at Hawaii in the 1999 season opener on Sept. 4.
First of all, Mailo returns to the island, Oahu, where he grew up and graduated from high school. He is playing against the team his father, James, played for. He also gets to face younger brother Anipati, a freshman linebacker for the Rainbow Warriors, for the first time. Making the occasion more special, the siblings will be playing on their mother, Christina's, birthday.
But to top it off, Mailo will be playing in a game for the first time since serving a two-year Mormon mission in Japan.
"For my first game back, I get to go back and play in front of friends and family and on my mom's birthday," Mailo said. "I get to go back and play in Aloha Stadium, a place where I played a lot of games in high school. Now I get a chance to go back there and people who watched me in high school can see me up close at the college level. I hope I don't disappoint them. I've got to do my best."
It marks the completion of a major change of pace for Mailo, who has returned from two years of knocking on doors trying to spread his faith, to knocking down defensive linemen.
Mailo, a 6-foot-5, 330-pound sophomore, prepped at Kahuku (Hi.) High his freshman, sophomore and senior years and spent his junior year at Banning High in Wilmington, Calif. He came to USC as a prep All-American and was an impact player as a freshman in 1996, starting three games at tackle and playing in five others as a reserve and on special teams.
Shortly after the school year ended in May of 1997, he began the journey that would land him in Japan for close to two years.
He spent two months training at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah, where he studied both Japanese and scripture and learned how to achieve the goals of his mission.
In August of that year, he left for the island of Hokkaido, the northern-most part of Japan. He spent time in five cities on the island and worked with 13 different companions (always in pairs) during his tenure there.
A typical day?
He was up at 5:30 a.m. and spent four hours preparing for the day, studying Japanese, reading scripture and eating breakfast. For the next 12 hours, he and his companion were out in the communities, either knocking on doors or visiting with people in their homes. Some days, they would visit with members of their church or help with community service projects at places like hospitals, orphanages or retirement homes. He also taught English. He was back home at 9:30 p.m. and in bed at 10:30. He did this six days a week.
"We were out 12 hours a day talking to people," said Mailo, who became fluent in Japanese after six months. "The (part of the language) I really picked up at first was the rejections. Sometimes, it was hard. You go out 12 hours a day and every door is a rejection, it's pretty tough. It is a very humbling experience. But you learn you can't get down. It's like what Paul Hackett says here. You can't get down. You have to get back up. If there were rejections, you have to suck it up and do it again.
"Even if you have 1,000 rejections, if one person invites you in to talk, it makes it all up. There were some really good people who wanted to hear what we had to say. That kept you going. Everyone had their right to choose what they accepted and you have to respect that.
"I felt my mission was a real big success, as a whole and for myself. Some people accepted what we had to say. A lot didn't. But there was no hostility toward us.
"No way was it a waste of time. We did a lot of good in the cities and learned a lot and grew a lot. I learned a lot about people and a lot about myself. I learned how people should be treated and how to treat others. I learned a lot about others. I learned a lot about God.
Mailo was able to assist in two conversions while he was there.
"There is no better feeling than that," he said. "The little that I did to help the person convert and change and become happy was one of the best feelings I ever felt in my life. It's like that good feeling you get when you help someone, but multiply that by one thousand."
He returned to USC during the summer and worked out with the team. Though he feels like he is in as good of shape or better than before he left (he's 30 pounds lighter than he was as a 1996 freshman and has added muscle), he is still working toward reaching the form he had before he left. He begins the 1999 season as the backup to Donta Kendrick at left guard, but he figures to see some playing time.
"It hasn't been easy," Mailo said. "There's a lot of rust. But I'm picking it up slowly but surely. Kind of surprisingly, I don't think I lost too much in the way of skills. But I still feel like I've got work to do to catch up."
But after the lessons he has learned in the past two years, Mailo is more than up for the challenge.
