{"id":185065,"date":"2014-11-14T04:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=185065"},"modified":"2014-11-14T04:00:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T18:00:18","slug":"savali-recovering-minor-injury-focuses-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/savali-recovering-minor-injury-focuses-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Savali recovering from minor injury, focuses on his studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Savali<\/a>
Savali Talalemotu, right, had 8 tackles and 2.5 sacks and forced a fumble in the PSU Vikings\u2019 13-31 loss to the Idaho State Bengals. (PSU Vikings Website)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFormer Kagman High School cager-turned-football player Savali Talalemotu is keeping himself busy with his studies after missing two straight games for the Portland State University Vikings in the NCAA Division I\u2019s Big Sky Conference.<\/p>\n

Talalemotu, playing defensive tackle and a back-up defensive end, suffered a minor injury in the fourth quarter of the PSU Vikings\u2019 13-31 loss to the Idaho State Bengals late last month.<\/p>\n

The Criminology and Criminal Justice major said he\u2019s doing fine after playing pretty well in the Vikings last few games before he suffered a concussion in the final minutes of the fourth quarter in their game against the Bengals.<\/p>\n

The Big Sky Conference\u2019s season is almost over with the Vikings to play their final road game this Saturday when they visit the Sacramento State Hornets and then host cross-state rivals Eastern Washington Eagles on Nov. 21 for their last match.<\/p>\n

Talalemotu is resting and missed the Vikings\u2019 game against the Montana State Bobcats (29-22). He is also doubtful in PSU\u2019s match against Sacramento State on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Now, he has concentrated with his studies since he is a student first and an athlete second. He is also doing light training in football practices and working out at the gym to keep in shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m not at football practice or working out, you can find me in the classroom. That\u2019s all the time I have right now. I\u2019m trying to keep my grades up during football season,\u201d Talalemotu said.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenging schedule of being a student-athlete, Talalemotu said he has managed to juggle his academic work with football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s challenging at times but if you just put your mind to it and get your work done it\u2019s not that hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the season almost over, he said that he will give it all that he\u2019s got in the Vikings\u2019 final season game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to continue to work hard and play harder. The season is almost over so I have to give it all I got,\u201d said Talalemotu, who is still undecided what to do after he graduates at PSU two years from now.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20193\u201d, 275-lb Talalemotu moved from Saipan to Beaverton, Oregon to finish high school where he was spotted by PSU scouts. His final year at Beaverton High earned him a third team All-Metro League honors.<\/p>\n

After graduating in high school in 2011, he red-shirted for PSU in 2012 and the following year made his debut as a defensive tackle where he played 11 games as a backup defensive end, registering 15 tackles, two in a Vikings loss, and 1.5 sacks.<\/p>\n

University of Montana, University of North Dakota, Northern Arizona University, University of California-Davis, University of Northern Colorado, California Polytechnic State University, and Southern Utah University, are the other Big Sky Conference teams. (Jon Perez)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Kagman High School cager-turned-football player Savali Talalemotu is keeping himself busy with his studies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":185067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[679],"class_list":["post-185065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-football-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}