Line Dancing
May 10, 2002 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Los Angeles Avengers News Release
By Marc Doche
Los Angeles Avengers
Communications Assistant
The Avengers pre-season talent show had been filled with the usual mockery of coaches and bad jokes. The only thing left was for Mathias Vavao, the club's newest lineman to get up and dance to his own beat. But there were no spins or twirls, flips or dips. Instead, there was grunting and leg churning, slapping and yelling. Grace and beauty be forgotten, this 300-pound lineman was preparing for war.
"I've been doing the Haka for years," says Vavao (pronounced -- va-VOW). "It's just a part of me. It's my culture. It's where I'm from, so, as they say, I have to keep it real. It's something that goes back to the days of old. It's done in New Zealand to intimidate the other side before a battle. It's about life and death when those warriors do it, so it carries a lot of significance in the culture."
The Haka now carries significance to the Avengers as well, as pre-season talent show fodder has evolved into a regular pre-game ritual in 2002.
"It sounds like he's banging the trash cans around while pounding his chest and screaming," kicker Remy Hamilton says. "It last about 15 minutes and fires the whole team up. All the guys in the locker room look at each other and are glad that he's on our team."
Vavao's teammates aren't the only ones pleased that the fifth-year lineman has joined the Avenger organization. After suffering through a trying 2001 season both on and off the field, Vavao relishes his fresh start in Los Angeles.
As a starting lineman with the AFL's nomadic Houston ThunderBears in 2001, Vavao found himself thousands of miles away from his wife, Mary, who lived in the family's off-season home in Antioch, Calif. Although he had grown used to the distance in his four previous seasons, a sudden illness that accompanied Mary's pregnancy made the distance seem even further, especially with both the mother and her unborn child's health in danger.
"My wife went through a lot of things last year, including a serious surgery that forced me to miss a few games," Vavao says. "My first priority in free agency was to come home closer to my family."
Geographic location was not the only reason the Avengers sat atop Vavao's wish list. The club's off-season changes, including the hiring of head coach Ed Hodgkiss, helped make Vavao's decision easy.
"When Hodgkiss and (assistant head coach Brent) Winter called, I knew they were great guys from what I had heard about them throughout the league," Vavao says. "They made me feel at home and really good about coming to L.A. It has been the greatest decision I've made in my career."
The feeling is mutual with Hodgkiss, who had the former ThunderBear and Iowa Barnstormer rated as the top lineman available through free agency.
"Mathias was the one lineman we targeted because of his two-way ability," Hodgkiss says. "Not only can he rush the passer, but he can put his hand down and protect extremely well, and there aren't too many people who can do that."
In making Vavao his first free-agent signing, Hodgkiss knew he was getting a quality player. What he didn't know was that he was getting a team leader as well.
"He's been everything we could have asked for as a player, but even more importantly, he's turned into a team leader in the locker room," Hodgkiss says. "I couldn't be more pleased with Mathias."
Vavao's ascension into a team leader was partly paved by the coaching staff, which promised him during his recruitment that the team would be full of players with good character, the kind of people who are needed to make a championship run.
"The first thing Coach Hodgkiss told me when I sat down with him in November was that he wanted quality character guys," Vavao says. "He told me that everyone on this team would have great character. And he has followed through on that promise. I get along with all my teammates here, both on and off the field."
However, not all of Vavao's teammates were strangers to him. After leaving Murray State in the spring of 1997, Vavao joined the Atlanta Falcons for training camp as a defensive lineman. That meant spending summer days chasing after current Avenger quarterback and then Falcon signalcaller Tony Graziani.
While Vavao believes that many of his current Avenger teammates, like Graziani, should be playing in the NFL, he's proud to have found a calling in the AFL, where his size can be an advantage when chasing receivers and backs.
"I enjoy the Arena game because a big man like me can catch the little guys against the wall," Vavao says. "On the big field, they can make me look stupid and not like a professional athlete at times."
Unfortunately for Vavao, the season has not been all smiles. There is the small issue of his inability to find the end zone, having been tripped up twice at the one-yard line on tight end screens.
"You think you can just run everybody over, but it's definitely not like that," Vavao says. "That one yard stuff is killing me. I was a running back in high school and I believe that's where I got my hands. Being a running back for four years taught me how to run and catch. That just stuck with me. I would have loved to have continued to be a running back, but my Samoan side took over and I ended up 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds."
Although his size may have prevented him from breaking records as a running back, it's useful in pushing back Boeing 737s, which is part of Vavao's job description in the off-season. He works on the tarmac with Federal Express and the U.S. Postal service, helping guide planes to and from the runway.
If a career in airline management doesn't work out, Vavao plans on putting his Los Angeles athlete status to the test.
"I would love to work for an airline in business marketing or a similar capacity, but if not, I could be a bodyguard for one of those Los Angeles actresses or actors."
In fact, Vavao couldn't help sneak a peek at some of potential future employers during L.A.'s season-opening victory over the New York Dragons at STAPLES Center on April 19.
"It was great having our stands packed for the opener and looking around and seeing Melissa Rivers, Sugar Ray Leonard and Steve Lavin in the crowd," Vavao says. "I was thinking, 'Wow, this is kind of cool.' I haven't had a chance to play in front of so many fans in a long time, not to mention playing in front of celebrities."
For now, doing the Haka and being the bodyguard for Graziani has made Vavao the center of attention in the locker room. If only he could find the end zone, then he could be an L.A. celebrity in his own right.
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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from May 10, 2002
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