Danielle Walko-Siua will soon get to take her rugby talents to a global stage.
The 2014 Waiakea HS graduate has been invited to play for the USA Rugby League Hawks at the Americas North Championship next week in Kingston, Jamaica — where Walko-Siua and her team will play against teams from Canada and Jamaica.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Walko-Siua said. “I thought it was an option, but I never thought I was gonna be able to make it to that level. Being able to be recognized for all the work I put in is such an honor, to be honest.”
Walko-Siua’s passion for rugby started in her childhood, when she played for Hilo Reign.
“I kept her from playing,” mother Eileen Walko said. “When she got to be 12 I lied and said that she didn’t make the weight because she was so little compared to the 12 and 13-year-old boys — there were only boys at that point. We formed a girls team, and then she started playing —and she was very successful.”
As an adult, she stands at just five feet tall — and though that is much smaller than the average rugby player, it never stopped Walko-Siua from pursuing her dreams.
“I would say I’m usually the smallest person on the field,” Walko-Siua said. “But, I feel like that makes the biggest impact when I get the ball, run and make hits.”
Toward the end of her time in high school, Walko-Siua played for the US National girls rugby team at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. Suwaiter Poch, also from Hilo Reign, also attended — playing for the USA boys team.
After graduating high school, she took her athletic career to the next level at Notre Dame College in Ohio. She recived an athletic scholarship and played four years of rugby for the Falcons — and was named a National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) First Team All-American in 2017.
In her post-collegiate career, Walko-Siua has worked with Roots Rugby Family — a non-profit organization centered around providing rugby opportunities from African Americans and other people of color.
“In the beginning, rugby in America was primarily white,” Walko-Siua said, “not a lot of people of color played, so the Roots Family gave us the opportunity to spread out and showcase our skills.”
Earlier this year, she played for the Tonga Rugby Union National Women’s team at the 2023 Oceania Women’s Championships in Australia.
“That was an amazing experience,” Walko-Siua said. “We were up there for two-and-a-half weeks. It was just amazing.”
If Walko-Siua and the Hawks succeed at the Americas North Championship, they could qualify for the 2025 World Cup.