Having been raised in Samoa and Hawaii for the first 20 years of my life, I can attest to the fact that every Polynesian recruit has very intimate ties to the church. EVERY Polynesian has very close family that are LDS.

In Tonga, the LDS church is THE LARGEST CHURCH. In Samoa, it's the 2nd largest but will soon be the largest. If you meet a Polynesian that is not LDS, you can pretty much guarantee that he/she has a sibling, aunt, uncle, etc. that is/are LDS.

Having said that, I'm watching the draft and looking at the Polynesians in there and thinking about what we could have here at BYU.

DEFOREST BUCKNER (Oregon) - Samoan - 7th pick in first round
SU’A CRAVENS (USC) - Samoan and my cousin
KA’IMI FAIRBAIRN (UCLA) - Hawaiian
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER (USC) - Samoan
RONNIE STANLEY (Notre Dame) - Tongan - 6th pick in first round

My point is that there aren't any Polynesians who aren't very familiar with the church or BYU and that we have legitimate shots at all of them. We should not limit ourselves to just the top LDS Polynesians.

My family is at two draft parties for relatives (Su'a Cravens and Soma Vainuku) right now and are posting pics on facebook.

I'm hoping we pursue more non-lds Polynesian talent in the future.