Fife lineman didn’t start playing football until 2 years ago. Now he’s committed to UW

Fife’s Ulumoo “MJ” Ale didn’t start playing football until his sophomore year at Fife High School.

Now, with about two weeks before the first practice of his senior year, Ale has verbally committed to play football at the University of Washington. He announced his decision via Twitter on Friday night, choosing the Huskies over offers from Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and Colorado State.

Ale is a load with a 6-foot-6, 330-pound frame. He was born in Samoa and his family moved to the South Sound in December 2014. He grew up boxing and playing rugby — which he was also very good at.

He even requested a waiver to play without a helmet after arriving in Fife because he said his rugby friends had teased him so much.

Ale dominated on the gridiron last season, earning the 2A South Puget Sound League Mountain division’s defensive lineman of the year, as well as first-team offensive line honors. He was selected to The News Tribune’s All-Area team as an offensive lineman and he’s considered Washington’s best offensive line recruit in the 2018 graduating class by Scout.com.

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 8:41 AM with the headline "Fife lineman didn’t start playing football until 2 years ago. Now he’s committed to UW."