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Medlock is a mother and a wife. Weekday mornings and afternoons, she’s a quantitative reasoning teacher at City High School.

At ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium and the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, she’s “Auntie Benjie,â€� the unofficial caretaker of the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™ Polynesian players.

ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ quarterback Noah Fifita said, “Auntie Benjie is awesome.â€�

“She’s been amazing,â€� Fifita said. “From the moment we got into Tucson, she’s been our Tucson mother in a sense. She’ll feed all of the Polynesian boys. Whenever we feel ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ick, she’ll bring us cookies or brownies. That’s the root of our culture, family and love. Auntie Benjie shows us that while we’re away from home.â€�

Over three years ago, when ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ signed several Polynesian football players for its 2022 recruiting class, “someone called me and said, ‘Hey, my nephew is going to be there. Can you take care of him?’â€� Medlock said.

“’Of course I can,’� she responded. “And that’s kind of how it started.�

Medlock and her husband, Phillip Medlock — also known as Uncle Phil — invited Miami Dolphins rookie and former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Jonah Savaiinaea, Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei and Jacob Kongaika over for dinners and gatherings.

It went from three players to nearly 20 over the span of three years.

“They can come hang out, eat some food and have home-cooked meals,â€� Medlock said. “They’re totally taken care of at ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, they don’t need me. But we just bring that home aspect.â€�

Added Medlock: “I spend a lot of my time outside of my regular job and being a wife and being a mother, on the phone with parents. A Polynesian parent who has not learned all of the information, they trust the person who looks just like them.�

Among the items served to UA players at Auntie Benjie’s house: teriyaki chicken, teriyaki beef, chicken katsu and Spam musubi.

“I’m kind of a snob about food and a Hawaiian plate,� Medlock said.

Medlock met other Polynesian players at a team luau leading up to the 2022 football season. That’s where she was introduced to Fifita, a freshman backup quarterback.

“I remember telling my husband, ‘This guy is a gem,’� Medlock said of Fifita. “He is so true and such a kind human.�

When Medlock was out of town and couldn’t attend her daughter Tulani’s choir performance at Salpointe Catholic, Fifita stepped in on his own volition to support her.

“That’s just the kind of guy he is,� Medlock said. “No one can ever say anything negative. I don’t care if he has a great game, a bad game, he’s the kindest human and student-athlete I’ve ever known in my life.�

So, why Auntie Benjie? Why not Mama Benjie if she’s the mom away from home?

In the Polynesian community, “auntie or uncle is what you call older people,� Medlock said.

“When I hit 40, I became an auntie to any stranger,� she joked.

Auntie Benjie’s purpose

Medlock’s generous spirit stems from her upbringing on the north shore of Oahu in a small town called Laie, which Medlock described as a village.

“I’m biased, but it’s the best place in the world,� she said. “Everybody takes care of everyone. That’s where I come from.�

Medlock’s parents, John and Moevanu Buttel, housed anyone who needed help.

“My father would bring strangers home and as Polynesian kids, whenever people came over, it was like, ‘Well, I guess we’re giving up our bed today,’� Medlock said. “We all slept in the living room on the carpet. My mom and dad took care of so many people. ... Everything I am is because of them. My parents took care of anyone and everyone.�

Benjie and Phil Medlock’s first child, Tulani, was diagnosed with asthma as an infant and their doctor recommended moving to Tucson, which is a safe haven for people with asthma due to the dry climate. Living in New York at the time, the Medlocks moved back to Hawaii, but “the vog (volcanic smog) from a volcano put (Tulani) in the hospital.�

Phillip Medlock explored jobs in Tucson and found an opening at the University of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥. The Medlocks moved to Tucson in 2010. Phillip Medlock, who was a former Fresno State football player, is now an academic advisor for the UA’s College of Engineering.

“That was God because the University of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ had a freeze on jobs at the time,â€� Benjie Medlock said.

After life took Medlock through Hawaii, Utah, California and New York, she was determined to make Tucson her home.

“I need to set roots down, and it’s going to be Tucson,� she said.

The Medlock family has fostered 18 children and has taken care of 40 kids since coming to Tucson. But none of the children she looked after were Polynesian. Now Benjie Medlock has 20 Polynesian children — or football players — she takes care of.

“We have taken care of so many people because we’re former foster-adopt parents, but I have never taken care of someone who looks like me and I just want to take care of them,� Medlock said. “I’ve seen so many of our people, my people, come through and they don’t see people that look like them.�

Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation

Medlock’s care for Polynesian athletes goes beyond breaking bread and spending time with people who hail from the same culture.

Medlock recently launched the , a nonprofit organization that empowers Pacific Islander athletes to help their athletic and professional careers with advocacy, professional development and community engagement.

Le Nu’u (pronounced leh-new-oo) is “village or community in Samoan,� Medlock said.

“We chose that because it encompassed everything that we want to do,� she added. “We help Pacific Islander athletes navigate college beyond sports, their career, all that stuff. Our idea is that every athlete that comes through our program will leave college with a comprehensive development plan, something that I know that many of our athletes — Pacific Islander athletes specifically — don’t leave with. The big goal is to create the most comprehensive Pacific Islander athlete network.�

The Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation is starting at the UA, but has plans to expand to ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ State and other FBS schools around the U.S. Medlock is connected with Kongaika, who is a defensive tackle for the Sun Devils, and ASU offensive lineman Terrell Kim.

One of the first initiatives for Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation is having quarterly meetings at the “Hale Halawai,� a Hawaiian term for “meeting house.� These meetings will have cultural workshops dedicated to Polynesian heritage, music, language and traditional practices.

There’s also a peer mentorship component, where former Polynesian athletes return to speak to student-athletes.

“They can see people who either went on to their professional sport or they went on to careers,� Medlock said. “The dream for a football player is the NFL, but the back-pocket plan is to be a dentist or be a professor.�

Additionally, “Hale Halawai� gatherings will also have collaborative study groups and access to academic resources.

In 2026, Medlock and the student-athlete members of Le Nu’u will attend the fifth Pacific Ocean Pacific Climate Change Conference in the Solomon Islands and a United Nations conference.

“That particular one, it’s twofold: getting them to travel, No. 1; two, to give them a platform where they can speak and they can look into environmental science,â€� Medlock said. “When I was growing up, nobody ever told me I could be an environmental scientist, right? All we heard in Polynesian ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, if you were smart your parents were like, ‘You got to do something, be a doctor, be a lawyer.’

“No one said, ‘Be an engineer.’ We want to give them this platform that they can get up and they can speak, do public speaking. Maybe they’ll be interested in politics. Maybe they’ll be interested in environmental biology, things like that.�

Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation will have a partnership with Tohono O’odham Nation and San Xavier District. In the offseason, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ offensive linemen Chubba Ma’ae and Rhino Tapa’atoutai, linebacker Leviticus Su’a and defensive back Gavin Hunter visited Tohono O’odham Nation and served food to the elderly as a way to show appreciation for welcoming them to their village.

“They were honored by the folks there,� Medlock said. “They got up, did what they were invited to do and by the end of the day, I heard from one of the council members that our guys wanted to serve the elders.�

Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation held a kickoff event Thursday night at Tucson Marriott University Park, which had the “Auntie Benjie� food spread: Spam musubi, fried noodles, mac salad, Kalua pork, teriyaki chicken and beef, garlic shrimp and guava cake for dessert.

The speakers at the event were members of the Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation team: Benjie Medlock (founder and executive director), Phillip Medlock (director of academic initiatives), Jacob Flores (Indigenous affairs director) and former UA football player James Grossman (director of programming and athletic development).

Other speakers included Blanche McMillan, the grandmother of former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ star receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who is the most recent addition to the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium Ring of Honor. Blanche McMillan has served and housed hundreds of people in Waimanalo, Hawaii, with a village-style community for those experiencing homelessness. She also orchestrated a drive for wildfire relief in Maui in 2023.

The last speaker of the night was Jimmy Snuka Jr., a former tag-team wrestler and the son of World Wrestling Federation Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superflyâ€� Snuka — and the cousin of Dwayne “The Rockâ€� Johnson. The younger Snuka’s daughter, Penina Snuka, graduated from the UA and is in the McKale Center Ring of Honor as a volleyball player. Snuka played for former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ volleyball coach Dave Rubio and then-assistant Charita Stubbs, who’s now the head coach; both attended the Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation event on Thursday.

Due to the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ football team having a practice at the same time as the event, UA players and coaches were unable to attend, but UA director of player relations and external development Ricky Hunley, whose family fostered over 40 kids in Virginia, spoke on the behalf of the football program and gifted Benjie Medlock a custom white ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ football jersey — the same jersey number (1) as Fifita.

Fifita and Su’a created promotional videos for Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation with QR codes to be shown on the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium video board during the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™ season opener against Hawaii, a game that’s celebrating Polynesian heritage. More information can be found at , where donations can also be made to support the nonprofit foundation.

Le Nu’u Legacy Foundation is “going to benefit people from that area of the world, and she has a really good business plan to roll it out,â€� said ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ head coach Brent Brennan.

“It gives Polynesian athletes all over the world opportunities and it gives us support,� said Fifita.

And it wouldn’t be possible without its quarterback — not Fifita, but Auntie Benjie.

“As I’ve gotten older, I feel like my life has been blessed, it’s my way to repay society,� Medlock said. “I can’t not take care of people.�