Utah Tech University Athletics

Vae Tata enters his first season with the Utah Tech Trailblazer football program as the outside linebackers coach, bringing with him more than a decade of coaching experience at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels.

He led Kahuku High School—one of Hawaii’s premier football programs—to an undefeated state championship in 2015, finishing with a 24–2 record over two seasons.

Tata’s college coaching career began at UCLA, where he served as a Special Teams Intern from 2008 to 2009. He then became a Graduate Assistant at San Jose State (2010–2011) under Coach Mike MacIntyre, followed by two seasons at Stanford as a defensive assistant during back-to-back Pac-12 Championship runs (2012–2013), working alongside current Utah Tech Head Coach Lance Anderson. He later held roles as Defensive Coordinator at Santa Monica College and Defensive Line Coach at Cerritos College.

He also participated in the prestigious Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship program with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2011) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2018), gaining valuable experience at the professional level.

A Hawai'i native, Tata played for Coach Cal Lee at St. Louis High School before earning a scholarship to UCLA, where he played defensive end from 1994 to 1998 under head coaches Terry Donahue and Bob Toledo. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UCLA.

He and his wife, Joslyn, are the proud parents of their son, Koa.