By Mike Hall
Medill Reports

SAN JOSE, Calif. – For his final year and a half at St. John Bosco High School, in Bellflower, Calif., George Holani slept on his assistant coach’s couch while his parents stayed at a discount motel for weeks at a time. 

On Sunday, the 26-year-old will suit up as the second-string running back for the Seattle Seahawks during Super Bowl LX.

“When you hear people say, ‘had to get it out of the mud,’ that’s George,” St. John Bosco linebackers coach Terry Bullock said. “That guy came from nothing.”

While Seahawks fans may recognize Holani as Seattle’s seldom-used bruiser in the backfield, others know him as the diligent, mild-mannered role model who triumphed in the face of adversity. Holani’s rise toward Super Bowl stardom required resolve, a kind of lunch pail mentality only those behind the scenes could fully appreciate. 

His parents, Saia and Atelaite, immigrated to the United States when George was around 3 years old. They settled down in Southern California, where Saia did construction work and Atelaite was a caretaker for families in the Pacific Palisades. With his oldest brother and sister in New Zealand and Australia, respectively, George inherited the “oldest” title in a crowded Tongan household with 10 kids.  

“It was kind of crazy having every sibling one year apart,” Tisa Holani, George’s younger sister, said. “We would have hand-me-downs, and everybody fit into each other’s stuff.”

During those early years, Holani grew up playing rugby, and Pop Warner football for the Lawndale Cardinals. His father, a former minor league rugby player in Australia and New Zealand, instilled the lessons he learned overseas into his son, which rubbed off on George’s  playing style. 

“He comes from a big rugby family, and they’re tough,” Bullock said. “They’re Tongan, and they’re like warriors.”

That type of tenacity translated to the gridiron, enough to the point where Holani’s family enrolled him at California football power St. John Bosco. He capitalized on every opportunity, regardless of playing time. 

“He never complained,” Bullock said. “He didn’t play varsity until he was a sophomore, when we won a state championship. He was the second- or third-string running back that year.”

To support their children during Holani’s tenure at St. Bosco, his parents worked around the clock. Their absence left a parental vacancy at home, and Holani slid right in.

“He had to make lots of sacrifices,” Tisa Holani said. “He was taking care of us when both of my parents were working. He was playing a parental role at home.”

“My parents were always working,” George Holani said. “Being the oldest sibling in the house, a lot of (my) younger siblings looked up to me. I made sure to get (them)] to school whenever they needed to be walked.”

Essentially all of Holani’s time was dedicated to looking after his family, playing football and studying, but the financial hardships at home escalated to a point where his dad asked Bullock to take him in for his final year and a half at St. Bosco. 

Because of work, Bullock said Holani’s parents only made it to two games during his senior year. Bullock even walked Holani out on the field ahead of St. Bosco’s senior night celebration in their stead.

“He would just come straight home every day and do homework,” Bullock said. “You never had to tell him anything. He slept on my couch. He made do with very little.”

Despite the circumstances, Holani thrived. He rushed for more than 2,300 yards as the Braves’ feature back during his final two seasons at St. Bosco, enough to land him a scholarship at Boise State in Idaho.  

“Through our struggles financially and not having enough support, that built him into taking action over words,” Tisa Holani said. “Going to a private school with many rich students, he took that opportunity to take care of his education and perform at his highest level through football.”

As a freshman at Boise State, Holani would routinely throw up more weight than some of Boise State’s seniors.

“There was no ‘not noticing’ George Holani,” said Winston Venable, Holani’s running backs coach from 2020-21. “He caught everybody’s attention very quickly. He stepped into Boise State with this work ethic, with this mentality of staying focused and handling business the right way.”

Holani burst onto the scene as the Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 2019, but he suffered an MCL tear against Air Force in the second game of Boise State’s 2020 season. 

During his recovery period, Holani focused on nutrition and becoming a better leader. In 2022, he rushed for 1,157 yards and 13 total touchdowns across 13 consecutive starts. The next year, he started seven games to bring his collegiate rushing mark to 3,596 yards, the fifth-most in program history. 

“He was able to overcome,” Venable said. “It’s a testament to him, sticking with it and continuing to grind and mature. He understood that he needed to take care of his body and become a professional, and he started those habits while he was in college.”

The following spring, Holani went undrafted before Seattle signed him as a free agent in May 2024. Nearly four months later, the Seahawks waived him before he re-signed to the practice squad. 

He went from playing 41 total snaps that season to playing in 11 straight games to start the 2025 regular season before a hamstring injury landed him on the injured reserve list in late November. 

Two months later, he returned to the field in Seattle’ s NFC championship game victory over the Los Angeles Rams, filling in after second-string back Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL. 

“He was patient,” Seahawks starting running back Kenneth Walker III said. “He was continuously in meetings with us, learning, and he waited for his time to come.”

Now, roughly a decade removed from being a surrogate father to his younger siblings, Holani will be at Levi’s Stadium, the site of Super Bowl LX. His football odyssey will culminate in football’s biggest spectacle, but he’s not ready to celebrate. At least not yet. 

“I’m not satisfied yet, because we want to go out there and win this game,” Holani said. “After that, it’ll be surreal.”

Mike Hall is a sports media specialization graduate student at Medill. Follow him on X: @mike_pat_hall.