Double the Pain and Double the Pleasure : The Secret to Success for Sweetwater High’s Taeatafa Sisters Is Their ‘Samoan Spirit’

When a question about playing with pain left Sweetwater High School’s Taeatafa sisters shy of an answer, a friend stepped in to help.

Rolando Jarin, a senior who starred in football at Sweetwater, knew exactly why Karen and Carolyn Taeatafa refused to let injuries like puncture wounds and separated shoulders sideline them.

“Samoan spirit,” Jarin said confidently. “It’s the Samoan spirit.”

Dennis Rasmussen, who coaches the Taeatafas in softball and volleyball at Sweetwater, agreed with Jarin.

“There’s a lot to that, a lot of pride,” Rasmussen said. “The Samoans won’t miss playing just because they’re hurt. They only sit out if they can’t walk.”

Actually, 5-foot 8-inch sophomore Karen Taeatafa almost couldn’t walk at one point during the past volleyball season. She stepped on a needle on the eve of the Hilltop Tournament, leaving a one-inch fragment in her left foot. Despite the pain, unaware the needle was still in her foot, she played and led the Red Devils to the tourney championship.

Karen’s younger sister, 5-foot 9-inch freshman Carolyn, suffered a dislocated shoulder in a car accident in January 1984. The shoulder is still slightly separated today, causing her pain whenever she uses it. Still, Carolyn has joined her sister in three varsity sports--volleyball, basketball and softball, at Sweetwater.

The Taeatafas do more than play with pain--they succeed despite it. For example, both girls hit more than .300 for the Red Devil softball team, which finished third in the Metro-Mesa League this season.

Karen, 16, has been selected to The Times’ all-county basketball team twice, averaging 19.7 points and 13.7 rebounds last season and 16 points and 10.7 rebounds as a freshman. She was also Metro Conference player of the year in volleyball and basketball last fall and an all-league softball player last spring.

Carolyn, 14, was all-league in volleyball and basketball (14.1 points, 11.1 rebounds) this year.

The Sweetwater basketball and volleyball teams have succeeded with the Taeatafas. The basketball team, which had never before qualified for the sectional playoffs, won the Metro-Mesa League in 1983-84 and finished second this year. The volleyball squad was second in 1983-84 and co-champion last fall.

Karen is already receiving letters from college coaches. As a freshman, her hard, left-handed spikes in volleyball and deft shooting touch in basketball netted her plenty of attention from recruiters, Rasmussen said.

The sisters seem to take all the attention and honors in stride. They just like to play sports, something they have done since they were small. As the youngest of seven children in a very athletic family, they were drafted for neighborhood games at an early age.

“We started playing softball when Karen was 8 and I was 7,” said Carolyn. “It was just the thing to do. We couldn’t stay in the house and eat all day.”

Karen and Carolyn also took up basketball while in elementary school, but neither started playing volleyball until the ninth grade. Woody, one of their three older brothers and assistant volleyball coach at Sweetwater, talked Karen into playing.

“It took me all summer before ninth grade to get interested,” Karen recalled. “By fall, I was ready. Now it’s my favorite sport.”

Both Karen and Carolyn were fortunate to play prep sports as ninth graders, since Sweetwater is a three-year high school. In the summer of 1983, the Sweetwater Union High School District decided to allow all ninth graders to play prep sports, even if they were attending a junior high school. Carolyn makes the one-mile trek from Granger Junior High to Sweetwater for practice and games each day.

When Karen first came to Sweetwater for athletics in fall 1983, she swiftly established herself as a talented player, said Steve Summers, the Sweetwater girls’ basketball coach.

“I had a good idea of what she could do because I had her involved with the team keeping stats when she was in eighth grade,” Summers said. “I thought she could be good, but I was surprised at how easily she stepped in. I remember she played tentatively in her first basketball game and only scored seven points. But she started scoring in double figures every game right after that.”

Rasmussen has a similar story from the first day of softball practice last year. Karen stepped up for batting practice using an unorthodox stance, and Rasmussen was ready to make some adjustments. But Karen hit the first pitch over Rasmussen’s head in deep right field. The coach resolved not to tamper with her style.

When Karen became a ninth grader, Carolyn took her place keeping statistics for the basketball team. Then, last fall, Carolyn faced the task of following in Karen’s footsteps.

“It didn’t bother me,” Carolyn said, shrugging off any hint of added pressure. “Nothing bothers me, to a point. I just did what I had to do.”

Said Summers about Carolyn, “We’re talking sort of a carbon copy of Karen, but with a little different style. Still, they both have that really intense, competitive drive. They both really rise to the occasion.”

For Karen, one such occasion was when she stepped on that needle before last fall’s Hilltop volleyball tournament.

“I didn’t think the needle was still in my foot,” she said. “I just knew it hurt. I went to the doctor two days later and we found it was still in there.”

The needle fragment was removed, requiring eight stitches to close the wound. Karen kept playing with the stitches in her foot.

Carolyn’s test came during the San Diego Section basketball quarterfinals last winter, when Sweetwater took on undefeated Santana. The score was tied at halftime, but Karen fouled out at the end of the third quarter. Carolyn picked up the slack in her sister’s absence and wound up with 20 points, keeping the Red Devils close until the end. Santana escaped with a 56-50 victory.

Having only one Taeatafa on the playing field for Sweetwater has been an infrequent occurrence this year. However, before high school, Karen and Carolyn were accustomed to competing against each other.

“They’ve been competing with and against each other all their lives,” Summers said. “They both like to do well. Now, they look out for each other on the basketball court. They get the ball to each other when they can.”

Both sisters admitted they took a particular delight in beating each other when they used to pitch for opposing softball teams. Then, Carolyn said, they realized they had more in common then they previously thought.

“I guess we never really noticed it until now,” she said. “We never really talked to each other before.”

Maybe not, but the Taeatafa sisters have other people--fans, opponents, coaches and college recruiters--talking about them a lot these days.