Almost Terminated : After Prep Career That Spawned a Movie Star Nickname Was Cut Short by Illness, Phil Fonua Is Back in Football

He is not donning shoulder pads and a helmet, but Phil Fonua is happy to be back on the football field, just the same.

The former prep All-American nose guard who suffered a life-threatening ruptured brain aneurysm last year has become an assistant coach at Hawthorne High. In charge of linebackers and running backs on the freshman team, Fonua, 18, is directing players not much younger than he.

“He’s by far the youngest coach I’ve ever had on my staff,” said Dan Robbins, Hawthorne’s coach for the last four years, who knew of Fonua from coaching his brother, Sione. “Because of his accomplishments, however, the kids really listen to him and respect him. He’s been an asset so far.”

That Fonua is involved with football at all is something of a miracle.

He was looking forward to a promising senior season last year at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach. His team was coming off a CIF Southern Section championship, and the 6-foot-2, 275-pound lineman was being recruited by such schools as Notre Dame, USC, Arizona and Florida State.

Teammates called him “Terminator.” He was a two-way starter who played fullback on offense and also excelled on the school’s basketball and track teams.

It seemed nothing could slow Fonua, who figured to be the first in his family to receive a college scholarship. But last August, two weeks before the start of football season, “Terminator” collapsed in the school’s weight room while hoisting dumbbells. He fell unconscious before a crowd of teammates.

Paramedics were summoned and Fonua spent four hours in surgery.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day,” Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow said. “The irony is that Phil is such a big and strong guy that you never expect him to be down in a helpless condition.”

A week after surgery, Fonua returned home to begin a long and difficult recovery period. Aneurysms--weakening in the walls of blood vessels that bulge, leak and eventually rupture--are rare in teen-agers. Fonua’s condition was congenital and nearly impossible to detect. Doctors said he was lucky to survive. One-third of such patients do not make it past the first 24 hours.

Fonua said he was not himself for six months. He lost 30 pounds and had chronic headaches. He said he walked slower and forgot things.

If Fonua was not at full strength, though, he didn’t show it. He was back in school the second day of the fall semester. He attended several football practices and was at every game. He even suited up for the team’s section championship game against Arroyo Grande in December and was a honorary captain.

“Phil doesn’t have all of his quickness back, but he sure has his strength back,” Morrow said. “He was in the weight room this spring and quickly got back to the level he was at before the accident. It’s amazing.”

Fonua gave up on his rehabilitation program only a month after his surgery because he felt he could do more on his own. He had a yearning to get back into athletics, but doctors ruled out football and basketball. By track season, he was feeling well enough to compete.

John Caruso, an assistant track coach at Mira Costa, said Fonua and his mother, Vila, approached him in March about getting Phil on the team. Fonua had placed fourth in the shotput at the state meet as a junior, at 57 feet 4 inches, and had a promising future.

“Vila told me that her son was dying without sports,” Caruso said. “Sports had always been his motivation to stay in school and do well. That had all been taken away from him and it was starting to hurt. I certainly could sympathize, but I knew his health had to be the top concern.”

Fonua’s doctor, Melvin Snyder, did a thorough examination, including a cerebral angiogram, in March and a month later cleared his patient for limited athletic activity. Fonua could compete in the shotput but not the discus, his other main event.

Snyder said Thursday that his patient’s condition is much improved.

“I’ve been able to find few other cases where athletes have bounced back from this kind of a thing,” Snyder said. “It’s almost unprecedented. He’s a strong kid.”

By the time Fonua joined the track team, there were only two weeks left in the regular season. He quickly got up to speed, winning the section’s Division III shotput title in May with a heave of 53-7 1/2. He stumbled at the Southern Section Masters meet, though, and failed to qualify for the state meet.

Caruso said Fonua and his family were disappointed that he couldn’t compete for a state title.

“That’s the kind of competitors they are,” said Caruso, who is also an assistant football coach at the school. “This guy had not had any robust activity for more than seven months and within a couple of weeks was winning titles. Imagine if he had been practicing all season.”

In his spare time, Fonua attended spring football practices at El Camino Junior College in Torrance. His older brother, Simi, is a defensive end on the team and is a projected Division I prospect.

El Camino Coach John Featherstone said he thinks Phil could be back playing football within a year if his recovery stays on course.

USC coaches are also interested in Fonua if he decides to play again, and the school has said it will honor a scholarship offer made last summer, even if football is not on the agenda.

For now, however, those things are on hold. Fonua will try to improve his academic standing by attending El Camino part time. He will keep his strength up by lifting weights and running every morning.

And then there is his coaching. When high school practice kicked off Monday morning, Fonua was one of the first coaches on the field. Hawthorne has one of the area’s established programs, and Fonua seems a natural fit.

“Phil is a lover of football,” Hawthorne’s Robbins said. “Our kids respond to people who know what they’re talking about and he certainly does.”

Fonua said he is feeling more like himself every day. He is back to his desired playing weight and is bench-pressing 390 pounds. The scar on his head from surgery is almost gone, as is his fear of another aneurysm.

“We’re all going to die, so why be scared about it?” Fonua said. “I certainly don’t want it to happen, but I won’t live in fear.”

Despite the medical risks, a return to football appears imminent. Fonua wants it and Vila said if that’s what he wants, it’s also what she wants.

Fonua, a Mormon, is scheduled to go on a two-year mission for the church next summer. When he returns, he plans to pick up where he left off.

“I’m a young gun, so a few years away from playing shouldn’t affect me that much,” he said. “It will give me all the necessary rest I need, and I will be mentally and physically ready when I get back.”