Initially, Jessica Amison had her first son, Alii, and was expecting a second child.
She was 19 years old and her husband, Julius, was overseas.
“Julius was deployed to Iraq for a year and a half while I was pregnant, then he came home on leave to give birth to Tama,” she recalled. “I didn't see my boys for three or four months after that.”
Tama Amison weighed 9 pounds and was about 22 inches tall at birth.
“He's my biggest kid but growing up he wasn't one of the bigger kids. Even in All Blacks (youth football) he'd say, 'Mum, I can't see beyond my lines'. He was a late bloomer.”
Tama Amisoné started learning to dance with her father when she was two years old.
“I trained him at home in mixed martial arts and boxing,” Julius Amisonne said. “He was pretty good, and his dad let me do it too.”
For Tama Amison, it came naturally. He brought the energy needed to get through any workout.
“I loved training with my dad when he was doing that kind of stuff,” he recalled.
Julius Amison grew up in American Samoa and played running back for the Pago Pago Eagles and later Samoa High School. His work ethic has influenced his five children. Growing up, Tama Amison was a little boy who would run alone in the park and run endlessly every day. But it wasn't until much later that he changed.
In the summer of 2020, Amison flew to South Dakota. He was on a mission of sorts. A young, skilled, speedy quarterback and receiver, he had trained as a youth under Paul Alehado, father of University of Hawaii freshman Micah Alehado. Amison had just finished seventh grade. Waiting for him at the Rapid City airport were his uncle, Rich Amison, and his wife, Nicole.
“He owned a CrossFit gym, so he got me into weight training,” Tama Amison said.
When summer began, he was 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 105 pounds.
“He had me squatting five days a week, with lighter weights on the weekends. I was pretty skinny and weak. The most I could squat was probably one plate (135 pounds),” Amisonne recalled. “I loved training with him.”