Trinity High School, Euless, Texas
Trinity High School of Euless, Texas first performed the "Ka Mate" haka for fans at the beginning of the 2005 season, copying from the New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team. Several famous All Blacks such as Jonah Lomu, Doug Howlett, and Pita Alatini have been of Tongan birth or descent, and Tongan players have helped transform Trinity High School into a Texas football powerhouse. The Euless area is home to an estimated 4,000 people of Tongan descent.
"We do the haka to ignite the breath of competition. It means that I've got your back and you've got mine," said Mr. Kautai, a player who stands 6-foot (1.8 m) and weighs 280 pounds (127 kg).
On 10 June 2008, former First Lady Laura Bush was greeted with a haka by the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan. She explained later in an interview that she was able to keep her cool because she is a fan of Texas football..."I actually know about the haka because there's one football team in Texas that won state last year that happens to have a lot of Tongans ... in Dallas-Fort Worth," she said. "And they do the haka. If I didn't already know about it and hadn't already seen this football team on television do this, I might have been really surprised by it."
Read more about this topic: Haka Performed By Non-New Zealand Sports Teams
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