'Bullies helped me grow': Loko now looks down from lofty heights
July 1, 2011
As a child, Jacob Loko, left, with siblings Vanessa, Aaron and Talitha.
The rising NRL star has overcome adversity, writes Glenn Jackson
Growing up in housing commission, sometimes by candlelight, eating tins of tuna for dinner, bullied as a teenager and losing his father as a 16-year-old; that was Jacob Loko's lot in life. So do you really think that going up against Mark Gasnier is going to faze him?
Loko is an 18-year-old with the world at his feet. And he is looking at it from a lofty height, 192cm for now - and still growing. As he approaches his 10th NRL game tonight, still before his 19th birthday, it is worth reflecting on the fact that a little more than a year ago, Loko was playing in the SG Ball competition. He will still be eligible for the Toyota Cup competition next year, but there appears little chance he will play in that division again.
All from a kid who was beaten up as a boy.
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Family values ... supporting his mother and siblings is a priority for the Parramatta Eels player. Photo: Quentin Jones
''I remember once this guy had me in an ankle lock in front of these girls and I was crying,'' he said, laughing now.
''It was pretty bad. I hated year seven. It used to be pretty regular. I used to hang out with the kids that played handball in the corner of the school. We used to try and stay away from all the footy players, the older ones. But I don't know where they are now.''
Presumably not playing NRL tonight. ''They used to think they were up there, man,'' Loko said. ''But I reckon it's helped me out. To grow as a person.''
Now, it is Loko who is up there; a giant of a boy, towering over many men he faces.
Ever since Eels coach Stephen Kearney took him aside a day before the side played Melbourne in round five, telling him he was playing him, he hasn't looked back.
''I wanted to aim high,'' Loko said. ''This is my dream. I trained really hard for it.''
Still, he has remained quite grounded. It comes, probably, from never being handed anything and never being able to take the easy option. It just wasn't available for him.
He lost his father when he was 16 to illness. He lived in Tonga, Jacob's mother Joanne having moved her children to Sydney without him in search of a better life. But they started from scratch; Loko grew up in Claymore, near Campbelltown, in housing commission.
''Sometimes the lights would just turn off,'' Loko recalled. ''Some weeks, we'd struggle. Mum was real strong in the church. We'd be praying. She'd always turn to God. She had a lot of faith in us.''
Joanne Loko worked three jobs, and did a TAFE course, to get her children through school. And some things had to give.
Sometimes Jacob would wait in the car outside her work, not wanting to stay at home. Sometimes it would break down and he and his brother would push it to the nearest petrol station. But their mother would bake food to help raise money to send Jacob on football trips.
''It was always big having a good dinner,'' Jacob says. ''We'd have one maybe twice a week. (Otherwise) we'd just have tuna and toast, or noodles.''
Now, she works no jobs, with Jacob's burgeoning career and his brother's work in scaffolding allowing her to rest at the family's home in Winston Hills.
''It's good to not struggle anymore,'' Loko said.
''It's good to have her at home resting. Anything she needs, I give her straight away. The money I get paid from Parra goes to her. I'm still new to it all. The team will go to fancy restaurants. I just look at the food and get carried away. The boys sometimes look at me and wonder why I eat so much. It's because we never had it when I was little. Ribs, steak
I get nuts, eh.''
The family got through on faith. Loko tries to go to church every Sunday. It was there, not the training paddock, that he first met his teammate Jarryd Hayne.
Loko shook hands with him. ''I won't wash my hand for a week,'' he told his brother.
''I just said hello and pretended not to be excited,'' Loko said.
''It was crazy. It's still crazy to play with him. Sometimes we're in the bus and I'm thinking: 'How did I get here'? It's hard to concentrate on the field when you're going up against your heroes.''
So far, Loko has faced Gasnier, Jamie Lyon and Jamal Idris. He admitted that Gasnier ''annihilated'' him the first of two times he has directly faced him.
''He stepped me, like, four times or something,'' he said.
''I was really down. I just felt that I'd let the team down. But the boys, they got me through it. I did a lot of extras.''
That desire to better himself comes somewhat from trainer Hayden Knowles, who - before he had played first grade - told him to look around on the training paddock.
''It's all about the want,'' Knowles told him. For someone who used to crave just a decent meal at night, wanting a wonderful career was easy.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...fty-heights-20110630-1gt4d.html#ixzz1QmCErTF6
