Faith, family and football are the three most powerful things when talking about Polynesian athletes. For Ferris State linebacker Iosefa Saipaia, it’s no different.
Similar to many Samoan families, their last name is very important to them.
“The way I was raised is that your last name is everything,” Saipaia said. “In everything you do, you represent your last name. If I was a janitor, I would have to be the best janitor in the world. In football I play the best football I can to represent that last name.”
Saipaia showed that on the field this season as he led one of the top defenses in the nation to the national championship.
After earning the starting linebacker position midway through last season, he built up success and turned in a tremendous 2024 campaign.
Saipaia led the Bulldogs with 93 total tackles. He also recorded one interception and eight tackles for loss.
Saipaia was always destined to be a football player, his father Blaine, played seven seasons in the NFL for the St. Louis Ramd and the Detroit Lions. Two of Iosefa’s six siblings also played college football, including his older brother, Sio Saipaia, who was a member of the Ferris football team this season.
Sio couldn’t be happier to suit up alongside his brother every week.
“Playing with Sefa was an incredible blessing,” Sio said. “I got to see the same little brother I player Halo I with, watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Saturday mornings with, accomplish so much in three years.”
Since Saipaia grew up watching his dad play, hanging around the facilities and attending games, the love for the sport came easily to him.
“He never forced the game on us which was a good thing,” Saipaia said. “It was just natural; you want to do what your dad does. Around middle school, I realized that I wanted to do this thing and take it as far as I could.”
After starting for his high school team as a freshman in Colorado, his family decided to move to Ohio for better football. He would play mostly junior varsity his sophomore season before suffering an injury pre-season that forced him to miss half of his junior year. However, he broke out his senior year, earning All-Ohio and becoming a larger name on the recruiting trail.
Saipaia received looks from a couple of DI schools, but COVID-19 made the recruiting process more difficult. He was still getting FCS looks and committed to FCS school Robert Morris.
However, Saipaia decided to take one last visit to Ferris before signing day and the school showed him enough to get him to flip his commitment.
“I could feel all of the love from the coaches,” Saipaia said. “[Tony] Annese preaches about love all the time and I could tell that he meant it, I wanted to be a part of that family.”
Saipaia saw mostly practice-squad work his first two seasons, as he prepared the starters for the games ahead. Yet, he knew it was all a part of the plan and used his family’s faith to keep working.
“It was kinda like being a part of the family in my culture, you have to know your role,” Saipaia said. “My role in this family at the time was to be a scout team guy and give it my best. I wore that with pride and did everything I could to make the team better.”
Midway through the 2023 campaign, Saipaia won the starting job and did not look back. The team would ultimately fall in the first round of the playoffs to Grand Valley and Saipaia took it upon himself to make sure that did not happen again.
“I knew something needed to change, we didn’t have any leaders vocally and I didn’t want to lose again like that,” Saipaia said. “I had to get rid of things that were distracting me and re-focus and re-evaluate why I play this game, who I am and what I want to do.”
His leadership can be seen through the way his teammates talk about him, junior running back Kannon Katzer had high praise for Saipaia as a leader.
“He doesn’t just lead our defense; he leads our entire team,” Katzer said. “Everybody follows him because he has earned our trust.”
Bouncing back meant a lot to Saipaia, along with the rest of the team, the early playoff exit didn’t sit well with him.
Saipaia and the Bulldogs bounced back, reclaiming the national championship with a convincing 49-14 win in McKinney, Texas.
Even though Saipaia was a part of the two other championship teams, being a leader and a playmaker on this one meant a lot to him.
“Making big plays on a big stage like that is a different feeling,” Saipaia said. “Just being able to do that in front of my family, being able to give glory to God it was amazing. After that loss in the playoff the year before everything I did was to get to that feeling in McKinney again.”
Following the championship win, Saipaia entered his name into the transfer portal and has decided to commit to Bowling Green State University, a DI college in the MAC conference.
A lot went into the decision to transfer but Saipaia feels like he has made his mark as a Bulldog.
“I feel like I did everything I could,” Saipaia said. “I played the role of the scout guy, played the special teams specialist, I played the backup who won the starting spot and proved he belonged and I played the team captain role. With one more year left, I just wanted to throw my hat in the ring and show I can be that guy at the DI level.”
Saipaia has enjoyed a great career at Ferris and will look to continue his high-level play at the next level as he pursues his NFL dreams.