PALO ALTO, CA ― A perfect day to begin a coaching career with a win.
Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard, who was hired after the 2025 season, began his coaching career with the Cardinal at 1-0 following his team's resilient, 37-27, win against Hawai'i at Stanford Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 29.
Stanford players sported a striped, cultural tribal design down the middle of their helmets, with red facemasks, on a beautiful, 72-degree day marked as Pacific Island Heritage Celebration.
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up 2% of Santa Clara County, according to the Bay Area Metro Census. And the community was on display among the 23,222 attendees.
Pritchard, who has Samoan-American heritage, enjoyed seeing the in-game cultural celebration.
"I'm
so proud of my Pacific Islander roots, my family from Samoa. I think about my grandparents that emigrated here from American Samoa to find a better life for their family, my dad and his siblings," Pritchard told USA TODAY Sports. "Just what that community means to me is they're one that's lifting me up and allowed me to do what I've done today and supported me in every imaginable way."
"So for us as a university and as an athletic program and a football program, to be able to try to honor them in this community, especially in the Bay Area," he added. "We have a huge Pacific Islander community of Samoans and Tongans and Hawaiians and Melanesians, Micronesians. It runs the gambit. To be able to honor them as best we could through that it means a lot."
The contest against Hawai'i made it all the more significant. But once the lights were on and clock started, Pritchard wanted to focus on the game.
"In terms of the game, you try to separate those things a little bit, because when it comes back to the football, it'sabout our players, and it's about giving them every opportunity to go out there and excel," Pritchard said. "Couldn't be more proud of the way that they showed up tonight and finished."
Fittingly, one player who came up big for the Cardinal was fifth-year linebacker Tevarua Tafiti, who is also Samoan and Hawaiian.
He made a crucial play in the fourth quarter, scooping up a fumble, forced by Zach Rowell, and taking it to the house to extend the Stanford lead to 37-27 to effectively put the game away.
"Being Samoan, Hawaiian, from Hawaii, that was really a great celebration for the people in the community and this area," Tafiti told USA TODAY Sports. "There's a lot of Polynesian people in the community, so it felt great for us. I just loved it."
And Tafiti did it in front of family, friends and even old teammates, some familiar faces on the Rainbow Warriors' side of the ball.
"I had my parents, my sister, and my uncle and my pops," Tafiti said. "I had a lot of high school teammates on the other team. I love seeing them."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stanford's Tavita Pritchard era begins with win on Pacific Islander night
