Miter 10 Cup rising stars: Freedom Vahaakolo’s rise from destitution to highlanders

The new wing of Otago Freedom Vahaakolo has a story to tell.

Earlier this year, he was a university student from Auckland who was sitting in a lecture when the Highlanders called and invited him to Dunedin.

It was out of nowhere – at the time, there was no Otago Miter Cup 10 contract waiting in the south, much less a Super Rugby deal, it was simply an invitation to pursue a dream.

But that’s only a small part of his story. Eight years ago, when he was 15, Freedom Vahaakolo was lost, angry at the world, and homeless.

“I used to sleep in a bush in West Auckland,” says Vahaakolo. Stuff. ” I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I didn’t have people volunteering to help me.

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But at the time I refused to accept grace when it was offered to me.

“He was very proud of me. He was determined to prove other people wrong.

” I slept in a bush at night for about a year. I used to try to earn money to go to the laundry and wash my school uniform.

” I didn’t care about school. When you don’t even know where your lunch is coming from, or if you don’t know if you’re going to sleep in the rain that night, those things were more important to me than doing my homework. ”

A product of Ōtara in South Auckland, Vahaakolo has tackled those difficult years.

In a video posted on Facebook by Tupu Toa, an organization that develops young Pasifika and Maori leaders, Vahaakolo recounted at a gala dinner in June how he fell victim to his own “toxic pride.”

In fact, for a time, Vahaakolo’s life was wild. He left his home at age 14, it was his own decision, and he communicated through acts of aggression and rebellion.

Looking back, he sees those years as a cry for help, the actions of a child of Tongan, Samoan, European and Maori descent who did not know where he belonged.

“I really struggled with identity and anger growing up,” he says.

“For me, the way I used to express myself was fighting and stealing. I was doing everything I could to get someone to see me, to get someone to notice me. ”

The result was a young life dominated by instability. Vahaakolo attended five high schools during his teens. “And they suspended me from three of them,” he says.

The big change came in 2015. Alone and tired of people coming in and out of his life, he returned to his whānau.

“When I was 17 or 18, in my last year of high school, the hardest thing I had to do was apologize to my family and try to regain their trust,” he says.

” The turning point was realizing that I couldn’t do everything alone. I didn’t want to make my life alone. ”

Success followed immediately. In 2017, Vahaakolo took a basic college entrance course, and is now a qualified accountant with a job waiting for him at Deloitte when he is done with rugby.

In terms of rugby potential, the 98kg Vahaakolo has a huge advantage.

Although he only started playing the game in his senior year of high school, he was selected to the NZ Barbarians Schools side in 2015, where he shared a room with Stephen Perofeta and played alongside his Otago teammate, Jona Nareki.

Obtaining his accounting title took precedence after that, but the Highlanders’ renewed talent identification setup, under Kane Jury, followed suit, noted his scoring exploits for Ponsonby in Auckland club rugby, and brought him to Dunedin to midyear.

In the modern era it is almost unheard of for Super clubs to contact players before they have Miter 10 Cup deals, but since his move, Vahaakolo first excelled at Dunedin in club rugby and later won a contract with Otago.

Vahaakolo has pace, power, and agility, befitting someone with athletic and dance experience, and he scored an excellent final try against Manawatū in his first start for Otago, backing up with another try during Ranfurly Shield’s win against Taranaki.

Vahaakolo acknowledges that he has taken an unconventional path, but the 23-year-old has no regrets.

“I’ve always believed in myself in the sense that I feel like I have what it takes,” he says.

” I just need to keep cutting.

” I’m still learning a lot. It was always my plan to finish college and then do my best with rugby, even if I didn’t get a contract. ”

The next step is to land a Super contract, either with the Highlanders or wherever the opportunity presents itself.

“100 percent,” he says. ”That is my dream. I am honest in the sense that I really want a contract.

“ In my mind, I really hope I can spend more time around the Landers, but for now I’ll just keep playing and let the coaches and the selectors worry about it, and I know if I’m in that picture. ”

No matter what the future holds, the one quality Vahaakolo will never lack is perspective. He talks about his own mistakes so that young Pasifika and Maori can see that asking for help is not a weakness. And he sees himself as one of the lucky ones.

“I grew up watching so many people fight, but doing everything I could to overcome it,” he says.

” I met children in my neighborhood who were beaten by their parents every day. I never had parents like that. My parents were a tough love, sure, but my parents told me they loved me. Where I grew up, it’s a pretty difficult place. There are many gangs.

“I consider myself very lucky to be where I am now because there are so many young people in the neighborhood who are super talented, but they never get a chance to see that talent flourish.”