Sagapolutele Ready to Lead His Bears to New Heights

It’s been a whirlwind couple weeks for Cal frosh QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍. First the super frosh led his team to an upset victory over #21 SMU with a stellar game, completing 31-of-40 passes (78%) for 330 yards and 4 TDs with no interceptions in leading the Bears to the 38-35 win. He also earned his second Manning National QB of the Week award of the season.

He than got permission to fly home to Hawaii to watch his Campbell HS teammates compete for the state open championship and come away with the victory. The trip also included an impromptu visit from his new head coach, Tosh Lupoi, who caught a flight to Honolulu just hours after his introductory press conference at Cal last week.

"First and foremost, just want to thank my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ for allowing me to still be able to play this game and that I'm allowed to have one more game with these guys (as the roster will change significantly next season), with these boys," Sagapolutele said. "Coach Rolo allowed me to go back home, enjoy some time off, just to go watch my guys, my alma mater, Campbell, playing in the state championship.

"Those are my guys, the community and fan base. I've lived in Ewa my whole life and there's just so much great people there and the support from when I was there, to the support they showed with the new guys that were there this whole season. 

“Coming home, just being able to just cheer on my guys back home, it was really a blessing for me. They did something I wasn't able to do, make it to the state championship they were able to accomplish. It was really more for Coach DJ, my head coach back from back at my high school. He deserves it. He's coached there a long time. He's coached at many different places, but to finally get that open state championship, it meant the world to me for him to be able to get that. And just for the boys back over there, just seeing such joy on their faces, it was just so fun.

“Midway through the championship, my mom just gives me a text that Coach Tosh was flying down and he wanted to talk with us and just figure out some things or questions that we had. So it was just great to talk to him, and just great that my family was able to meet him.

“Coach Tosh is a great person and just being able to continue to talk to him even more was good.

"We a great conversation. I have full trust in him that we're gonna have a great year. We're gonna do some great things here. The biggest thing is we want to win. And we want to attack this thing. We're going to attack it hard. So that's what we plan to do.

"He got in around 12:45 and then we left around 2:45 in the morning. So it was good. I mean, I'm just grateful that he even wanted to make the flight to travel all the way from Berkeley to Hawaii just to spend a couple hours with me and my family. It's really a testament that just shows how great of a coach he is and what he wants to do for this program. And just to know how much I meant to him, and that meant so much more to me and I'm just so grateful. There was a lot going on. I'm just here now and that's all I'm going to be focused on.”

The frosh QB has developed a special bond with offensive assistant Nick Rolovich and has known him since early in his career because of Rolo’s Hawaii connections having starred there as a quarterback himself as well as coaching at his alma mater. Now with the veteran coach ready to return as QB coach and assistant head coach per recent reports, the relationship can continue to flourish.

"Rolo is such a treat," Sagapolutele said with a smile. "It's just been a dream for me to be able to work with him. And him having those Hawaii connections, I guess it's a bridge as well, as you would say."

"I think he's very happy," Rolovich said after he was named interim head coach. "I think he's a wonderful young man. I think he wants to win. I think he'd like to make everybody at this university, including the fans, proud of the football team and but he's still an 18 or 19 year old young man that needs somebody there for him.

“He's got an elite arm. He's a competitor. I think everyone in here kind of understands that, but he's still a young human, and being there for him he if he wants to talk about it, he wants to cry, laugh, whatever, that's what I would like to do.”

Sagapolutele arrived at Cal nearly a year ago as an early enrollee after transferring down from Oregon after a quick stint in Eugene and he’s enjoyed his time so far as a Bear immensely. And now he’ll continue to enjoy his new home after committing to return to the Bears next season. But first, a return home to Hawaii to play against the Rainbow Warriors right in his backyard.

"It's been great," the frosh QB said. "Every day I'm here, it's just a blessing. I mean, I get to wake up every single day, get to see and live with a bunch of great guys. I play with a bunch of guys that I love. I play under great coaches that I love, too, so what more could you ask for? We have great weather here too, although it's been a little cold. I mean, it's a lot warmer than it is other places. So there's not much more I could ask for. I'm just so blessed to be here and just so grateful and going back to Hawaii to play this last game of the season."