Holley's duties shifted
ALAMOSA, Colo.— Adams State College head football coach Marty Heaton recently announced the hiring of two more assistant coaches and has shifted the duties of another completing his coaching staff for the upcoming 2010 season.
Former Grizzly player and ASC graduate Aaron Tuioti-Mariner, the head football coach and athletic director at Sanford High School in 2009, and Josh Wood, a recent graduate of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D., are the new additions. Tuioti-Mariner will serve as the Grizzlies’ running backs coach while Wood will coach the team’s cornerbacks while assisting with the special teams units. Another former Grizzly in George Holley, added to the Grizzly staff earlier in the summer, was originally slated to coach the running backs but will now guide the rovers and safeties as former Grizzly secondary coach Jason Semore resigned last month for a Division I coaching opportunity.
Tuioti-Mariner played for the Grizzlies in 2001 recording 71 tackles as a junior in 2001. Starting 10 of the Grizzlies’ 11 games that year, he also made 10 tackles for losses that season before being forced to miss his 2002 senior season because of a knee injury.
Graduating in the spring of 2002, with a bachelor’s degree in business management, Tuioti-Mariner started work on his graduate degree in counseling in the fall of 2002 and is now pursuing a master’s degree in human performance and physical education with an emphasis in sports administration. He plans to complete that in the spring of 2011 and has also started in ASC’s MBA program with plans of completing that degree a year later.
Following his time as a Grizzly, Tuioti-Mariner moved to American Fork, Utah working in media advertising sales while helping with an occasional football camp and working on graduate coursework at BYU.
He then returned to the San Luis Valley in March 2009, and was an advertising sales representative for the Valley Courier. He then also added athletic director and head football coach duties at Sanford High School to his busy schedule and helped the Indians post a 7-3 record while advancing to the 8-man state quarterfinals.
Prior to his time as a Grizzly, Tuioti-Mariner was a First Team All-Region 18 and All-Western States Football League player for the Ricks Junior College Vikings of Rexburg, Idaho, an institution now known as BYU-Idaho. He helped the 2000 edition of the Vikings, ranked ninth in the nation, win a Real Dairy Bowl game and was the team’s freshman of the year in 1999, a year that saw the team be ranked third in the nation.
Originally from Apia, Western Samoa, Tuioti-Mariner went to high school at Santa Ana Valley (Calif.) and was an all-league quarterback and safety while earning team MVP honors for the Falcons.
He then went on a 2-year church mission to the Dominican Republic before returning state-side to attend Ricks.
Tuioti-Mariner’s has four siblings, including brothers George, who played football for New Mexico State University and the Oakland Raiders and Tony, the defensive line coach at the University of Hawai’i. His parents Frank and Eterine now live in Las Vegas.
When not around the game of football, Tuioti-Mariner enjoys spending time with his wife Melissa and the couple’s four children— Lincoln, 8, Malia, 6, Olivia, 4 and newborn baby girl Elenisi, born June 18.
Wood joins the Grizzly program after graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in May from Black Hills State, where he played football during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
Wood also joined the Yellowjackets’ track and field team as a sprinter during the 2010 indoor season.
In his two years as a defensive back on the Yellowjacket football team, Wood recorded 83 tackles, including 54 of the solo variety and made two interceptions. He also earned an Honorable Mention All-Dakota Athletic Conference honor and was named to the conference’s Academic Scholars Honor Roll during both of his years with the program. He also received Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete recognition twice and was a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame’s William V. Campbell Trophy.
In track and field, Wood also earned DAC Academic Scholars Honor Roll status and helped the Yellowjackets’ 4X200 and 4X400-meter relay teams finish third at the DAC Indoor Championships.
Wood had transferred to Black Hills State from Chadron State College and was a member of the Eagle program from 2005-07 before an injury thwarted that portion of his career.
After redshirting in 2005, Wood and the Eagles went an impressive 24-2 overall and a perfect 16-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play winning 2006 and 2007 titles while advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Playoffs in both years.
He also was named to the RMAC’s All-Academic Team as a redshirt sophomore in 2007.
A native of Manitou Springs, Colo., Wood was a 3-sport standout at Manitou Springs High School earning First Team Colorado Springs Gazette All-Area honors as a defensive back and second team all-conference accolades as a wide receiver on the gridiron. He was also a member of the Mustangs’ 3A State Championship 4X400-meter relay team in track as a junior in 2004 and took second in the 300-meter hurdles as a senior in 2005. Wood also earned honorable mention all-conference honors in basketball.
Wood is one of six children born to John Wood and Beth Larson. Two of his brothers ran track and field at the collegiate level with his older brother Dan running at Embry-Riddle (Fla.) while his younger brother Kevin ran at William Jewell (Mo.).
In his free time, Wood enjoys barbecuing, watching football, especially his favorite player Charles Woodson, and playing ultimate Frisbee.
The Grizzlies, who are holding their first “2-a-day” practice session on Thursday, begin their season at home on Aug. 28 against Dixie State (Utah). Kick-off at Rex Stadium is slated for noon.
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