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OREM — Not many moms have the responsibility to keep tabs on their NFL, college and high school star football players. But Penina Nacua has that unique opportunity.
Nacua is the mother of six children, three of whom are in the middle of successful football careers. Her oldest, Kai, was a standout defensive back at BYU and is now working to make the Cleveland Brown’s 53-man roster in the NFL. Samson is a redshirt freshman receiver at the University of Utah and earned a starting job this year after starring at Timpview High School, and Puka is a junior wide receiver at Orem High School, who is a four-star recruit and has offers from BYU and Utah among other schools.
Penina and her late husband, Lionel, always saw it important to have their kids participate in sports while raising their family in Las Vegas.
“My husband and I, when the kids were all young, always felt like sports were important for them. So it was sort of the requirement that everyone stay active and play sports,” Penina Nacua said. “But we just thought it was important because we just wanted them to stay busy and not be troubled kids.
"One of the things we always discussed was the desire for them to go to college and have that opportunity and so as they started to get older, we saw that they could possibly go to college through a scholarship playing sports. That was always the goal to push them because we knew having that many kids that we couldn’t afford it.”
After Lionel died in 2012, Kai accepted the offer to continue his football career at BYU and Penina made the big decision to move her family to Utah Valley after the eldest Nacua graduated in 2013 so she could continue to watch all her kids' games and to keep her family close together.
“That first year (after his dad’s death) after a touchdown, Kai would always point up to the sky and remember his dad,” Penina Nacua said. “It was always kind of the same with the other boys, they would always have a fist to their heart and would look up to dad so they remember him all the time, every day.”
Although it has been a few years since Lionel Nacua’s death, Kai, Samson and Puka are all still influenced by their father. Puka said his dad "was a big part in teaching us to love the game. (He taught us to) love the game before we got good at it.”
Now a few years later, Kai, Samson and Puka are all working hard to make their mom and late dad proud with each athlete making a name for themselves.
After leaving quite a legacy with BYU football, Kai signed as an undrafted free agent with the Browns and has played in three preseason games while totaling eight tackles. He is looking forward to hopefully making the 53-man roster this week.
Samson is impressing Utah coaches. Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham called Samson one of the “more pleasant surprises” of fall camp and that he is “one of the most improved players.” Offensive coordinator Troy Taylor called him “an incredible football player and a fierce competitor.”
According to Scout.com, Puka is ranked as the No. 1 receiver in his class in the state this year and No. 3 in the West. While Puka’s older brothers try not to influence his decision-making in where to go to school, the younger Nacua certainly looks to his older brothers for inspiration and motivation.
“I like to watch Samson because we have the same body type and he shows me a lot of different things that I can work on (as a receiver) and then I try to show him things that I work on with my receiver coach, Ross Apo,” Puka Nacua said. “And with Kai going into the NFL, it makes me realize that that is the goal, that is why we play football, that is what we work towards so we can help mom out.
"I know that being a teenager I mess up every once in a while, and Kai is always there," he added. "Kai, after my dad passed away, has really stepped up as the oldest brother and he is always there for me whenever I need advice.”
With each Nacua brother in such a different spot in their football careers, with their goals ranging from taking the 4A state championship to having a role on an NFL team, Penina Nacua hopes one thing for her boys.
“I think as a mom what I want them to accomplish is just to love what they are doing out there and do it well because football so far has been the thing that they love doing," Nacua said. “You have to be strong and tough out there, and so that is how I am with my boys. I am not the normal, average mom who babies her kids. When my husband passed, I had to push my kids through the tough times and tell them it’s do or die. You have got to make it. It is another year of what you want to do; it is not about me, it is about where you want to head with this.”
Kai, Samson and Puka will all be in action this week as Kai takes on the Chicago Bears on Thursday in an NFL preseason game, Samson starts for the Utes against North Dakota Thursday and Puka and the Orem High Tigers play Bakersfield, California, on Saturday.
Lindsey Peterson is a Brigham Young University student studying broadcast journalism. Contact her at lindspeterson4@gmail.com or on Twitter @LindsPetey.
