Vaka Manupuna (born June 30, 1982) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive tackle. He was signed by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2006. He played college football at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Manupuna was also a member of the New York Jets and

Utah Blaze The Utah Blaze was a professional arena football team based in Salt Lake City, Utah and competed in the West Division of the Arena Football League. Home games were played at the EnergySolutions Arena. In 2013, the team did not submit proper ...

Early years

As a senior, Manupuna earned first-team all-state honors from both the Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin for St. Louis School in Honolulu, Hawaii. SuperPrep named him to its All-Far West team, ranked as the No. 72 player overall in the region, and he also earned first-team all-Interscholastic League of Honolulu (ILH) honors for a second straight year. As a senior, he registered 37 solo tackles (about 60 overall), with four fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles and three quarterback sacks.

College career

Manupuna played college football at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

and started in all 13 games as a senior, including the

Champs Sports Bowl The Pop-Tarts Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group which also organizes the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Classic ...

. He enjoyed his best season as a senior where he earned honorable mention All-

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

honors from both the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

and the league coaches. Manupuna had 52 total tackles on his senior season (28 solo), including four for losses, five third down stops, seven quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries and two pass breakups.

Professional career

First stint with Redskins

Manupuna was signed by the

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

as a free agent in 2006 and spent part of the season on the practice squad.

New York Jets

Manupuna was signed to the practice squad of the New York Jets on December 20, 2006, only to be released on December 27.

Second stint with Redskins

Manupuna was re-signed to a future contract by the

. He was released on May 15, re-signed on August 2 and released again on August 13.

Utah Blaze

Manupuna played for the

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

in 2008, recording 16 tackles and 2.5 sacks.

Third stint with Redskins

Manupuna was re-signed by the

on May 1, 2009. He was waived on August 4, 2009.

Spokane Shock

Manupuna signed with the

Spokane Shock The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won divisio ...

of the newly reformed

Rugby League

He has been named in the

United States national rugby league team The United States national rugby league team represents the United States in international rugby league football competitions. The team is managed by the USA Rugby League (USARL). The United States competed with little success in some interna ...

22 man squad for the

2010 Atlantic Cup The 2010 Atlantic Cup (known as the Hotels of Jacksonville Atlantic Cup for sponsorship purposes) was an international rugby league tournament played in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. The competing teams were the United States, Jamaica and Canada. Th ...

References

External links

Arena football bioColorado Buffaloes bioWashington Redskins bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manupuna, Vaka 1982 births Living people Players of American football from Honolulu American people of Tongan descent American football defensive tackles Washington Redskins players New York Jets players Utah Blaze players American rugby league players United States national rugby league team players Maui Rugby players Colorado Buffaloes football players