Mao Tosi


Falemao "Mao" Tosi is a former American football player, a defensive tackle for two seasons in the National Football League. He is the only Samoan to date to be named Alaska's high school basketball player of the year.

Early years

Born in Maun'a, American Samoa, he moved with his family at age three to San Diego, California, and to Anchorage, Alaska, about a decade When his parents returned to San Diego, he stayed in Anchorage with an older brother. At East Anchorage High School, he starred in basketball for the Thunderbirds with teammate Trajan Langdon.

College

After graduation from high school in 1995, Tosi received a basketball scholarship to Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas, northeast of Wichita. The Grizzlies were ranked #1 in the country during the 1996–97 season, and finished third in the NJCAA Tourney during the 1995–96 season.
He received a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he excelled as a dual-sport athlete, also playing football for the Vandals at defensive tackle in 1998 In 1998, Idaho won the Big West Conference title and upset Southern Mississippi in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise and finished with a The next year, the Vandals were entering the final game against rival Boise State for the conference title, but Tosi was kept out by the medical staff due to a neck stinger, and the Vandals were

Pro football

At the 2000 NFL Draft, he was selected in the fifth round by the Arizona Cardinals, where he started ten games as a rookie and led the defensive line in tackles. Injured in his third season in 2002, and was diagnosed with a genetic defect in his neck, spinal stenosis, which ended his

After football

Tosi moved back to Alaska to raise his young family. In 2006, Tosi began working with at-risk youth in Anchorage, and later founded a non-profit organization, AK P.R.I.D.E. Youth Programs.