Dream come true: Mount Tahoma grad Taliese Fuaga selected in first round of NFL Draft
Taliese Fuaga, the soft-spoken, gentle giant who played football at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, is officially a professional football player.
Fuaga, an offensive lineman who played college football at Oregon State, was selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with the 15th overall pick by the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night in Detroit.
Fuaga garnered recruiting notice out of high school thanks to his 6-foot-5, 320-pound frame. He picked Oregon State over offers from USC and Oregon and flourished in Corvallis.
In 2023, his junior season playing tackle at Oregon State, Fuaga racked up a laundry list of accolades, including first-team Pac-12 honors. He was named an All-American selection by ESPN, CBS Sports, the Associated Press, Pro Football Focus and others. He was part of an offensive line that helped Oregon State average nearly five yards per carry and nearly 170 rushing yards per game.
And take note, parents: if you’re good enough, they’ll find you. Fuaga played for a bad Mount Tahoma program during high school (the T-Birds have since turned it around and played in the Class 3A state tournament last season). Despite the lopsided losses, he never looked to transfer elsewhere.
“All my siblings went here,” Fuaga told The News Tribune in 2019. “It’s like a home for me. The losing, it’s difficult to overcome. I come from a school that doesn’t win a lot, but I’m trying to change that.”
Then-Mount Tahoma coach Leon Hatch saw this coming years ago when he coached Fuaga.
“He hasn’t even played his best football yet,” Hatch told the TNT at the time. “The thing that’s so unique with him is that he is flexible. He’s strong in the weight room. He has quickness. He has all those things necessary for him to be a great player.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2024 at 6:48 PM.
