Rich Muraco doesn’t just talk about Troy Fautanu. He raves about him. And to Muraco, the head football coach at Liberty High School in Las Vegas, you can’t separate Fautanu the player from Fautanu the person – dichotomous as they are – when highlighting what makes him special.
“Troy’s a coach’s dream,” said Muraco, who coached the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 first-round draft pick for four seasons at Liberty. “He always did the right thing off the field. Teachers loved him. Was well-liked by the student body. Never got in trouble. But he knew how to flip that switch when he started playing to play nasty and play physical and enjoy that side of football.”
I couldn’t help but mention during our recent phone interview that Fautanu sounds like another Troy who once played in Pittsburgh. Wore No. 43. Soft-spoken and polite off the field. But would wreck your offense and hit you to Blawnox once he buckled that chin strip.
Muraco laughed but said there are indeed parallels between Troy Polamalu and Troy Fautanu because of their shared Polynesian heritage.
“We have a very large Polynesian community at my school,” said Muraco, who has been Liberty’s head coach since 2009 and with the school since it opened in 2003. “They call Las Vegas the ninth island because of all the people who have moved here from Hawaii, Samoa and different parts of the Polynesian islands. They’re very family-oriented, old school with the way they raise their children.
“Children are taught to be seen and not heard. Respect their elders. Troy really embodied that: respect your elders, respect your coaches, respect authority but at the same time when you get out on the football and get an opportunity to be physical and have fun, he knows how to do that.”
Sounds just like Polamalu. Which it could not be more fitting. Fautanu idolized the Pro Football Hall of Famer growing up and even wore No. 43 until Muraco made him an offensive tackle (and, as it turns out, a lot of money).
The Steelers did not draft Fautanu 20th overall last month to make the highlight-reel plays that transformed Polamalu into one of the best safeties and most compelling players of his generation.
The Steelers will be more than happy if he remains largely anonymous whether they plug him in at left or right tackle. Polamalu has already endorsed the Fautanu pick, and to Muraco, what really links the two is their high character — on and off the field.
“Some of these kids once high school’s over, I never hear from them again, but Troy always made time to come back, say hi, visit, work out at the school,” Muraco said. “He was working out the week of the draft at Liberty. Just a great kid.”
Life has been a whirlwind for Fautanu since that week he worked out at his alma mater. There is all of the fanfare that comes with being a first-round draft pick and getting back to football.
In between taking part in Steelers rookie minicamp and the start of OTAs, Fautanu called Muraco. He wants to start a football camp, and he asked Muraco if he could do it at the school he helped put further on the map by becoming the initial first-round NFL draft pick in its history.
“He wants to give back,” Muraco said. “That says a lot about his character.”
