Fed up with COVID shutdown, rising Puyallup basketball star and family moved to Utah
Taki Uluilakepa went to an outdoor park near his family’s home in Puyallup late last spring, hoping to get some shots up on the basketball court. Normally, he would’ve been playing in AAU basketball tournaments or in summer-league games with the Puyallup High School team during that time.
With the coronavirus pandemic raging and Gov. Jay Inslee enacting shutdown policies and gathering restrictions, opportunities for organized basketball were limited. Still, shooting some hoops at the local park was better than nothing, Uluilakepa figured. That was until he arrived and couldn’t believe what he was seeing: The rims had been removed from the hoops.
That’s when it dawned on Uluilakepa, who had a breakout freshman year for the Class 4A South Puget Sound League champion Vikings: A basketball season in Washington wasn’t coming anytime soon.
“Jay Inslee kept all of us stuck in lockdown,” he said. “That’s when we knew.”
So Taki’s dad, who shares the same first name as his son, and his mom, Ann, told their kids to pack their bags; they were moving to Utah.
“My wife and I weren’t sure when school was going to start back up,” said Uluilakepa’s dad. “When school started, were my kids going to be able to go to school? I wanted my son to keep playing basketball. … Nothing was happening. There were no tournaments. There was no practice. He couldn’t even go shoot around in the gym.”
The family felt frustrated by the government-mandated shutdown, they said.
“Can’t they let people just decide on their own what they want to do, how they want to treat this COVID thing?” Uluilakepa’s dad said.
Taki, the younger brother of Danny Uluilakepa — who was a first-team selection to The News Tribune’s 2019 All-Area football team as a star linebacker for the Puyallup football team and now plays for Montana State — moved to the Salt Lake area in June, living with a cousin until his family arrived about a month later.
His dad, who recently received his commercial driving license, found a job in Utah driving semis for Sysco, a major food supplier.
Uluilakepa was hesitant to make the move. He was born and raised in Washington and grew up playing basketball alongside his Puyallup teammates. But he has adjusted quickly to life in Utah and said he enjoys living there.
“It wasn’t that hard to be friends with everyone,” Uluilakepa said. “I’m an outgoing person.”
Uluilakepa was a key player on last year’s Puyallup squad, averaging 10.2 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 steals for the Vikings. He was the team’s third-leading scorer behind first-team all-league selections Cobi Campbell and Luke Holcomb, shooting 44 percent from the field, with a 40 percent mark from behind the arc.
He shot up a couple inches between his freshman and sophomore years, now around 6 feet tall and is two games into his sophomore season at Real Salt Lake Academy. In two games, he’s averaging 8.5 points, including a 12-point effort in RSLA’s 99-59 win over Altamont on Saturday.
Utah, of course, isn’t a COVID-free place. The players and coaches still follow mask-wearing practices, and athletic activities are paused if there’s a positive case identified within a program. Two family members per athlete — often the athlete’s parents — are allowed to attend games and are required to wear masks.
Washington high school students continue to sit on the sidelines, waiting for a return to school and, subsequently, a return to high school sports.
Uluilakepa, meanwhile, is happy to be playing the sport he loves and putting out sophomore tape for recruiters. The move to Utah was about increasing his chance to play at the next level. Uluilakepa isn’t shy about admitting that fact.
“I want to get my (college) paid for,” he said. “I want to make sure my parents don’t have to pay for anything. That’s my main goal, that’s what I want to have happen. It’s really important to me.”
The family figured they might move back to Washington after Uluilakepa’s sophomore year, so he could play for Puyallup again in his final two high school seasons. But they’ve discovered they enjoy life in Utah. A move back to the Pacific Northwest now seems unlikely.
“We all love it down here,” Uluilakepa said. “It’s just a better opportunity for me and my family. We’re going to stay down here, probably.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
