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BYU linebacker Sione Takitaki has made a remarkable turnaround, from being kicked off football team to being named a team captain

Provo • At first, the slender and outgoing freshman BYU swimmer from a small town near Sacramento wanted nothing to do with the big, burly and annoyingly persistent freshman football player who wouldn’t stop trying to flirt with her at a bonfire in the mountains above campus.

Too many tattoos. Too crude in his language and jokes. Too rough around the edges for her liking. So what if the sweet-talking guy with the unique sounding name — Sione Takitaki — was one of the prized newcomers on the BYU football team?

“I am the type of person where I have my standards, and I don’t break those for anybody,” Alyssa Penney said.