WHS coach on Biggest Loser

Windsor High School football coach Koli Palu said his goodbyes
to his players in September and then vanished from Sonoma
County.
On Monday news of Palu emerged for the first time in three
months when NBC officially announced that the 29-year-old coach is
one of 22 contestants on the upcoming season of the reality
television series “Biggest Loser.” The show challenges contestants
to lose weight in front of millions of television viewers with
$250,000 in prize money up for grabs. The new season begins at 8
p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
Details of the past three months of Palu’s life are still a
closely guarded secret by the television network. Producers made
him available for telephone interviews this week under the
condition that he’d be asked nothing about the past three months.
What is known is that he did go to the Ranch in September, a
private facility where contestants eat, breath and sleep
fitness.
Like other reality shows, contestants are eliminated
week-to-week in competitions. On Biggest Loser, the show culminates
weekly with a weigh-in that determines the week’s biggest winners
and those who will be asked to leave. The show is filmed well in
advance of it airing on national television.
Season 9 of Biggest Loser features 11 family teams of two. Palu
is teaming with his cousin Sam Poueu, 24. “I saw an ad on the
Channel 4 news about the Biggest Loser Challenge on family and
couples, and my cousin Sam was the first person I thought about,”
said Palu. “He was a great JC football player but he had become
stagnant in his life, too. I knew he needed this as much as I
needed it.”
Palu, at 403 pounds, once played football at Rancho Cotate High
School at Santa Rosa Junior College, but in the years since he said
his life had stagnated. He was inspired by another Tongan—a people
from the Pacific Islands—named Filipe who starred in Season 7. And
so the two cousins made the trek south to San Jose to audition for
the show.
Palu wasn’t optimistic about his chances at getting on the show.
“As soon as we pulled up I wanted to go home,” he said. “I saw a
line of 500 people waiting and I thought I didn’t have a chance. We
tried out anyway and I guess we were blessed because we got a call
back.”
The cousins accepted the invitation, a decision they understood
would put them in the spotlight while they battled their weight
problems. “I knew I needed a change in my life,” said Palu. “I was
stagnate. The only thing that had been keeping me going was the
Windsor High School football team, and I knew I couldn’t just do
that my entire life. I knew I had to shake things up. The Biggest
Loser gave me that opportunity.”
His reasons for participating in the show have changed since he
left in September. At first, he said it was his competitive side
and a desire to win the prize money that motivated him. That’s
changed. “As the time went by it became therapeutic for me,” he
said. “I’m starting to learn about a whole new me.”
He’s nervous about the upcoming premiere of the show. “I’m proud
of the changes I’ve made in my life,” he said. “Everyone is going
to see my ups and downs, my weaknesses, but I’m also excited
because they’ll get to see my successes. The ranch has been a
wonderful blessing.”