HARBOR CITY, Calif. — It’s Wednesday night in mid-July, and the Narbonne High School football team is practicing.
It’s windy and hot, and the Gauchos sweat for three hours until the sun goes down.
Those watching would never know it, but a longtime NFL player is present. He wears an oversized white T-shirt, a baseball cap on his head and a whistle around his neck. The only sign of his past life, an expensive Apple watch, is strapped around his massive wrist.
His booming voice carries as he tells his players to be prepared to run laps at the end of practice.
Brandon Manumaleuna played for the best team in Arizona Wildcats history in 1998, and was part of the St. Louis Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” three years later. He played a full decade in the NFL.
Manumaleuna is still as quiet and reserved as he was during his time in Tucson, particularly when he’s talking about himself. When he talks about Narbonne’s players, though, he lights up.
Manumaleuna’s official title is offensive coordinator, but he’s become a big brother, too.
Manumaleuna doesn’t care to relive the past or bask in a visitor’s attention. He just wants to inspire his players, to let them know that there’s life outside of Harbor City.
He wants to make a difference.
“a fire inside”
Manumaleuna played as a true freshman at Arizona, and three more seasons after that. The St. Louis Rams selected him in the fourth round of the 2001 draft. He stayed there, a part of Kurt Warner’s famed offense, until 2006 before moving on to the San Diego Chargers and, eventually, the Chicago Bears.
In Harbor City, a diverse neighborhood south of Carson and west of Long Beach, he had made it.
Manumaleuna, the son of a former UCLA football player, grew up with one sibling and 10 half-siblings. He was the only one to play football after high school.
In 1997, Manumaleuna was the only Narbonne player to earn a college scholarship offer.
“That team was loaded with talent,” said Manuel Douglas, Narbonne’s longtime head coach. “He was the only one on his team, and they had many guys really good. Just, academically, they couldn’t. That’s the worst thing, having a kid who can play but can’t qualify. We’re trying to do better.”
That’s where Manumaleuna has proven to be an asset. His playing career ended in 2011; since then, he’s turned his full attention to coaching and helping Narbonne players move on to college.
Manumaleuna never carried himself like a future coach, but Dino Babers always saw something in him.
It was Babers, now the head coach at Syracuse, who convinced Manumaleuna to spurn USC for the Wildcats back in 1997. Babers recruited Manumaleuna a second time shortly after being hired as Eastern Illinois’ head coach in 2011. The coach offered his one-time standout a job as tight ends coach.
“He was always quiet and reserved, and there was a fire inside, but you never really saw it on the outside,” Babers said. “He was an Eagle Scout, a fine young man, and one of my wife’s favorite players. She’s got three favorites, and he’s one of them, and it has nothing to do with football.
“It had everything to do with how these players treated kids and acted around adults. He was an amazing individual.”
from waiting to coaching
Manumaleuna sat in the players lounge at the San Francisco 49ers headquarters, waiting. It was 2011, and the hulking tight end was back in the league. Or at least he thought so.
Manumaleuna turned down Babers’ offer to give the NFL one last shot. He tried out for the New York Jets and, when that didn’t work out, went to San Francisco.
“I had a great workout” with the 49ers, he said.
Niners officials told Manumaleuna they intended to sign him, and asked him to wait in the lobby.
Two hours passed with no news, however, and Manumaleuna called his agent.
Another hour later, finally, a staffer emerged.
Bad news, the 49ers told him: We’re not going to sign you.
“At this point, it’s been three hours and I’ve just been sitting there,” Manumaleuna said. “So I said, ‘(Forget) this. I’m done.’”
Like that, his career pivoted. Manumaleuna returned to Harbor City and dedicated himself to coaching.
Narbonne is 60-13 since he started as a volunteer assistant in 2011. Last year, with Manumaleuna serving as offensive coordinator, the Gauchos went 14-1 and won a state title.
The team is producing scholarship players, too. Narbonne has sent 11 players to college, including UA freshman wide receiver DeVaughn Cooper. Another Narbonne receiver, Sean Riley, verbally committed to the Wildcats before signing with Babers’ Syracuse team.
Manumaleuna played a big part in both players’ recruitment.
“The kids respect him,” Douglas said. “They listen to him.”
learning on the job
Coaching didn’t come naturally to Manumaleuna at first. He was used to the NFL, where coaches, trainers and support staffers cater to every player’s need.
Narbonne was different.
“I like working with kids,” Manumaleuna said. “But it’s harder, a lot harder. … I had to learn this my first two years: You really have to realize that in the NFL, that’s your job. These kids, we only get them three hours a day, so you have to focus on your five main plays and make them as good as possible.”
Manumaleuna was coaching Narbonne’s junior varsity team once when he called an elaborate NFL play.
“He couldn’t grasp what we were doing,” Douglas said, laughing.
Manumaleuna did better with the off-the-field part of coaching.
“Over the last five years, we’ve gotten good at putting guys on a plan, tracking them — he’s really good at that — making sure they take the right classes, test when their supposed to,” Douglas said. “It’s been a blessing to have Brandon with us.”
happy at home
Manumaleuna works out of Douglas’ office at Narbonne, a two-room area with room for exactly one desk.
The cramped space serves him well. Like him, it’s unassuming. It’s hard to find. Under the radar.
Manumaleuna’s goal now, with recruiting ramping up and a season just around the corner, is to help his players get beyond Narbonne and Harbor City and, in some cases, California. Manumaleuna has seen Super Bowls and superstars, cashed large checks and chased the NFL lifestyle. He now wants others to live their dreams while he’s back at home.
“A lot of kids just don’t have the vision of what is outside this area,” Manumaleuna said. “You gotta kinda just give them something to strive for.”
