Seumalo, from Maunaloa to the NFL

Molokai High School graduate Uso Seumalo just signed as a free agent with the Seattle Seahawks. Contributed photo

By The Molokai Dispatch Staff

A Maunaloa Elementary and Molokai High schools graduate has made it into the National Football League for the next season. As if it weren’t good enough, he will play for the current Super Bowl champions.

“We want to give a big shout out to Vaai Jericho Uso Seumalo,” Rick Schonely said at his Molokai Sports Report at Akaku TV last week. “After the four rounds of the NFL Draft, he was signed as a free agent with the Seattle Seahawks.”

Schonely said Seumalo was recently at home on Molokai, and visited his former school in Maunaloa. 

Before joining the two-time Super Bowl winners, Seumalo played from 2022 to 2025 as a defensive tackle for Kansas State University, where he achieved several career honors. He was the first Division I scholarship player from Molokai High School.

On May 1, following the NFL Draft, the 6’3”, 330-pound Molokai boy signed as an undrafted free agent with the Seattle Seahawks. He trained on the Seahawks two-day rookie minicamp May 1-2 at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Washington.

“Uso, live your dream, young man. Molokai is so proud of you,” Schonely said on his show.

Before Seumalo, another Molokai High School graduate played in the NFL. Class of 1989 graduate Kimo von Oelhoffen played in the NFL from 1994 to 2007. Ironically, he didn’t play high-school football on Molokai because the school didn’t have a football program then.

During his career, von Oelhoffen played for the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles. It was against Seumalo’s team, the Seahawks, that von Oelhoffen earned his XL Super Bowl ring in 2006 playing for the Steelers.