Wai'anae High linebacker/defensive end David Pa'aluhi said he has accepted a football scholarship offer to play at Oregon State.

Pa'aluhi, an Advertiser all-state third-team selection, visited OSU over the weekend and made his decision.

"I like that it was a smaller town," he said of Corvallis, Ore. "The coaches and the people over there are real nice. I liked their engineering program and football program."

Pa'aluhi is 6 feet and 218 pounds, and he said the Beavers are projecting him to play outside linebacker.

Pa'aluhi canceled visits to Washington and Hawai'i. He said UH wanted to gray shirt him (delay enrollment for a semester). Both programs had offered him scholarships.

Amazingly, this past season was Pa'aluhi's first in football. He only had been in wrestling.

"My dad said, 'Try it' and I like it," Pa'aluhi said.

Pa'aluhi is a third generation Searider football player. His father, Kawika, is a 1987 graduate and played for two O'ahu Interscholastic Association championship teams. His grandfather, David, is a 1962 graduate, who also played for the Seariders.