18 SEPT. 28, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED
BY TYLER HORKA
F
our-year-old Kyngstonn Vil-
iamu-Asa was just as resilient in
comparison to his peers as the
teenage version of himself, and
that's someone who's a regular rotation
piece in Notre Dame's 2024 linebacking
corps. Someone who recorded 13 total
tackles in his first three games for the
Fighting Irish and his first collegiate in-
terception in the third.
The No. 43-ranked player in the 2024
recruiting class, the No. 4 linebacker
in that group and No. 27 in your Notre
Dame game day program is a gamer. A
football guy. He's always been that way.
Viliamu-Asa's preschool flag foot-
ball team was losing to a rival, if there
is such a thing for head-to-head bouts
among boys who don't need all the fin-
gers on one hand to count their age. Vil-
iamu-Asa got kicked in the head during
the game. A bump the size of a base-
ball sprouted above his eyebrow. His
mother, Taliuta Viliamu-Asa, prepared
to take her son to the hospital.
Or so she thought.
"Kyngstonn just starts crying," she
told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "And he
says, 'Mom, I want to go to the hospital
after I play this game.'"
Taliuta's motherly instincts quickly
shifted from cautionary and protective
to understanding and trusting. Chil-
dren are hardheaded. Sometimes, quite
literally.
She let Kyngstonn finish the game.
Her husband signed off on the decision.
Viliamu-Asa will be a staple in the middle of the
Fighting Irish defense for many years to come.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER
THE
UNICORN
Freshman linebacker
Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
is a 'once-in-a-lifetime
type of guy'
