He Hopes to Make Most of Second Chance : Football: Although Tevita Moala had practiced with the West team for more than a week in preparation for Lions all-star game, he quit the squad to compete in Shrine game.

Leaving Hawthorne High to play football at Brigham Young University this fall will be a bittersweet experience for Tevita Moala.

Moala will remember Hawthorne’s 14-6 victory over Bell Gardens in the Southern Section Division III title game in December--the Cougars’ first championship since 1954. His helmet, still covered with mud from the rain-soaked field at La Mirada High, hangs on the wall of his room.

Moala, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound linebacker, broke his school record with 165 tackles despite playing the last six games with a dislocated shoulder. He was selected as the Southern Section Division III player of the year and The Times’ South Bay back of the year.

Moala will also remember the weekly Thursday night team dinners. Players embraced in prayer and joined hands after each meal in remembrance of teammates Kenny Tuihalamaka and Robert Douglas, who were shot to death in 1989 and 1990. The team also wore Tuihalamaka’s and Douglas’ numbers on their helmets the past two seasons.

“You could feel the blood circulating through everybody,” Moala said. “It just humbled us and helped us focus. Instead of their deaths taking a piece of us, we used them as inspiration. We would cry and talk and cry. It was more of a family than a football team.”

Memories such as those prompted Moala to initially turned down an opportunity to play in the Shrine game on July 24 at Veterans Stadium. Instead, he planned to participate in Saturday’s West Torrance Lions all-star game at Redondo High.

The Lions game would provide Moala a final opportunity to play with Hawthorne teammates Mostafa Sobhi, who also declined an invitation to play in the Shrine game, Corey McCoy and J.J. Arnett.

The Lions game conflicts with the Shrine training camp, which begins today. Players are not allowed to participate in another game during the eight-day camp.

“Being selected to play in the Shrine is an honor even if I didn’t actually play in it,” Moala said about the game that matches the top players from Southern California against their Northern California counterparts. “But (Shrine officials) were calling and I felt like I was betraying them.”

Moala’s father, Talite, also wanted his son to play in the Shrine game. After talking with his father on Tuesday, Moala decided to withdraw from the Lions game.

Moala had been attending practice for the Lions game for more than a week, but waited until after practice on Tuesday to inform West Coach Kerry Crabb.

Talite Moala also had to postpone a family trip to Tonga so his son could play in the Shrine game.

Not just anybody gets to play in the Shrine game, Talite Moala said. “It has more of a reputation and the exposure is much greater than the Lions game. It was a matter of circumstance.”

Moala’s decision to attend BYU was far from circumstantial.

His father is a BYU graduate, and Moala said the opportunity to go on a two-year Mormon mission and the large Tongan population in Provo were other factors.

“Polynesians are close-knit,” said Moala, who was born in Los Angeles. “We like to stick together. That’s why once they get one at Carson, the next thing you know they have a group of them. The day I signed was one of the biggest days of my life.”

At BYU, Moala will also be reunited with childhood friend Kalani Fifita, a freshman running back from St. Louis.

Moala and Fifita played together on a youth football team in Provo in 1986 when Talite Moala was completing graduate course work at BYU. Although Moala moved to Hawthorne in 1987, the two vowed to meet again as freshman at BYU.

“When you’re kids, you make all kinds of promises, but you really never think much about them,” Fifita said.

Fifita moved to St. Louis, where he earned all-state honors last year after leading Kirkwood High to the Suburban West Conference title and the state semifinals.

Moala and Fifita had not spoken or seen one another in nearly seven years until each made a recruiting trip to BYU in December.

“We were in the football office and I turned around and recognized his face,” Moala said. “We ran to each other and hugged. It was pure coincidence.”

Moala, who is expected to play safety in college, was also recruited by California, Texas A&M; and Colorado. In the weeks leading to Feb. 3, the first day football players could sign a national letter of intent, Moala narrowed his choices to Kansas and BYU.

Fifita reduced his choices to BYU and Iowa and was prepared to sign with the Hawkeyes until he learned of Moala’s decision to attend BYU.

“That’s how much of an influence he is on me,” Fifita said. “There’s something about him that’s different. He an average-sized person but he has so much desire. He wasn’t that big when we were kids, but I still remember the stings of his hits. I’m hoping I can learn that kind of motivation from him.”

The two have kept in touch by telephone over the past several months and exchanged game films and newspaper clippings. Fifita flew to Los Angeles to attend Moala’s graduation in June. The two will be roommates at BYU when practice begins in the first week of August and will join another member of their youth football team, sophomore linebacker Robert Vanderpool.

“It’s sad to leave Hawthorne,” Moala said. “It feels like I’m leaving my family, but I’m being adopted by another family in college.”