With less than two hours before the kickoff of its most important game of the season, the TVCC Cardinal football team gathered in the east end zone at Bruce Field.

There, in a light drizzle, players hooted and hollered and chanted and stomped, performing a “Haka” — an ancient and sacred ritual dance that some mythology dates back to the sun god Ra.

On this occasion — and the Haka can mean many things — it was performed as an act of team unity. And if those Navarro Bulldogs happened to hear it as they made their way to the field last Saturday, well then, that was all the better.

But for two Cardinals — Beck Coulter and Isaac Puapuaga — the moment meant something more. As they played a junior college football game in Athens, Texas, their thoughts and hearts were thousands of miles away.

Five days earlier, the Samoan Islands region was hammered first by an earthquake that measured anywhere from 7.9 to 8.3 on the Richter scale. That triggered a tsunami, with waves twice as tall as the modest houses along the shore and as destructive as dynamite. Two-hundred people lost their lives, with thousands more hurt.

Members of both players’ families were among the injured.

For Coulter, the tragedy hit especially close. His village, Leone, in Pago Pago, was directly hit. Most of the pictures you have seen in newspapers, on the Internet and on television in the aftermath, he says, are of his village.

“It’s gone,” Coulter, a linebacker, said somberly. “Everything’s gone.”

Coulter was in a defensive meeting with the team last Tuesday when he got a phone call from his girlfriend, who informed him about what had happened. She had already headed to the mountains to avoid the waves that had, in many places, submerged entire houses. He asked if she had seen his parents. She hadn’t.

As it turns out, Coulter’s brother, Cameron, had saved his father’s life. It was 6 a.m. when the earthquake shook the ground that morning. Some reports state the quake lasted three minutes, and villagers said the tidal waves hit just minutes later.

Water came over Coulter’s parents’ house, and Cameron — after noticing their mother, Tagiilima, was hanging on to something stationary, swam to their backyard. He found his father, Robert, there, floating face down. Cameron acted quickly, pulling Robert onto the branches of a fruit bread tree to get him out of the water.

Moments later, Cameron also saved his aunt’s life. Their mother suffered a serious injury to her leg and almost had to have it amputated, but the family members all survived.

Puapuaga, a defensive lineman who was born in the states and attended high school in Austin, also has relatives who were greatly affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Puapuaga’s uncle is the chief and pastor of his village. So when tragedy struck, his villagers looked to him for help. Puapuaga said his uncle —who had just returned to the region after spending time in states and suffered a stroke while here — spent days assisting his people. The uncle suffered minor injuries.

In the days that followed, the search and recovery efforts continued. Meanwhile, the Cardinals prepared for their big game against Navarro. In the minds of Puapuaga and Coulter, it seemed like the perfect time for the Haka.

TVCC Head Football Coach Brad Smiley said Puapuaga had been asking if the team could perform the Haka since the beginning of the season. A number of teams with players from the South Pacific have gained attention for doing it, including high school players at Euless Trinity.

Smiley, however, declined each time, saying that he wanted it done right and in a way that was respectful to the tradition — not something merely for show.

“I just didn’t know if everyone would take it as serious as Beck and Isaac would,” he said.

But now Smiley agreed it was the right time.

As the Cardinals cluttered up the end zone last Saturday and began to bounce and sway, Smiley said he could tell the gesture was sincere.

“Without a doubt, in my three years being here, it was the best ‘team’ thing we’ve done,” said Smiley, who, along with other coaches, wore a white armband signifying the tragedy. “It was inspiring.”

Said Puapuaga: “What we used it here for was a tribute. This is our heritage. It was nice.”

The Cardinals went on to lose the Navarro game, 42-32. But the message had been sent.

On a field in little Athens, Texas, 70 young men from all backgrounds and cultures reached out and let two grieving teammates know one thing, loud and clear: that they’ve got their backs.