By JERÉ LONGMAN

EULESS, Texas - Public-address announcers at games for Trinity High, America’s top-ranked high school football team, sometimes inadvertently twist players’ names into what Pacific Islanders consider swear words. Anywhere else in this state, where high school games can draw tens of thousands of fans, such mispronunciations would not be an issue. But the Trinity Trojans hardly fit the familiar image of Texas football.
A pipeline from the Pacific Island kingdom of Tonga has delivered a Polynesian influence to this town’s churches, markets and football team, which won state titles in 2005 and 2007 among Texas’ largest schools. Players of Tongan descent have brought imposing size, strength and toughness to the Trojans - and the need for a roster with phonetic spellings for the announcers.
“That would stop the cursing,” said Ofa Faiva-Siale, projects manager for the Euless Parks and Community Services Department.
Students at Trinity speak 53 languages, and the flags of 31 nations hang in the school’s entrance. The proximity of Euless to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which is located partly within the city limits, has brought a remarkable diversity to this town of 54,000.
Thirteen of the 24 Trinity players who have made the all-state team since the 1980s, and 16 members of the current roster, are of Tongan descent.
“When you think of Texas high school football, you think of country kids, farm kids; you don’t expect to see players from the South Pacific,” said Sioeli Pauni, who has two sons on the Trinity team.
The parents of many players work at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport . Others are self-employed as landscapers, carpenters and masons. Meanwhile, their sons are resolute football players who weigh from 90 to 150 kilograms and find in football a brisk physical exertion similar to the Tongan national sport of rugby.
Each time he knocks a defensive player on his back, Uatakini Cocker, a 1.8-meter, 135-kilogram offensive tackle, screams: “Mate ma’a Tonga,” meaning, “I will die for Tonga.” Later, the playful Cocker said, he often has to explain his heritage to opposing players and fans in this typical postgame conversation:
“Are you Mexican?”
“Polynesian.”
“Samoan?”
“Tongan.”
“O.K., because you would be a very big Mexican.”
The presence of 3,000 to 4,000 Tongans here has lent an unmistakable touch of Polynesia to Euless and Trinity High. The Hawaiian Market advertises kava root used for a traditional drink. A nonprofit organization called Voice of Tonga addresses concerns about immigration, culture, language and health .
Half of Trinity’s 2,189 students in grades 10 through 12 are white, with a roughly equal mix of black and Hispanics and about 275 Asians and Pacific Islanders.
This year’s football team is represented by at least eight nations, from Laos to Rwanda.
Nine of the 22 starter players are Tongans.
“It makes you a better person, learning to accept different people,” said Dontrayevous Robinson, one of Trinity’s star players, who is African-American.
Trinity has a Polynesian Club, and Polynesian students frequently join the choir and participate in the arts. About 10 Polynesian players from Trinity (5-0 as of early October) are now playing college football.
“I think they set the tone for the whole school,” said Susan Kaufman, who coaches women’s volleyball. “They are self-confident. Their culture is taught to respect authority. They are very big on family and see the team as an extension of the family. They are nonmaterialistic, which means at Trinity, you can be who you are, no matter what your background is. You can have pink hair or a mullet or be a Goth. Whoever you want.”