The Canuteson family of orcas, as the name clearly indicates, is of Scandinavian descent. Family histories indicate that the clan originated on the Åland Islands in the North Sea, but the American Canutesons have not lived there for over 150 years. In 1850, young Ole Canuteson and his wife, living in Stockholm, met the first Mormon missionaries in the country and promptly converted—that is, after the missionaries determined that baptisms for marine converts would proceed just as those for land-based ones. In part through his employment in Stockholm’s harbor, Ole was able to gain discounted passage to the new world. The subsequent trek across the United States’ plains to Utah was difficult for the Canutesons, who found the endless expanses of dry land forbidding and the shallow, wide rivers that crossed it unsatisfactory. Upon arriving, they were disappointed to find even more desert-like conditions and a salty lake much too saline for their tastes. They settled for a while on the shores of fertile Utah Lake but eventually were dispatched north to Bear Lake, where they made their permanent home between the mountain waters and the slopes.

Ole gained repute in 1856 by volunteering to rescue a handcart company that, having left the East too late in the season, had gotten stranded by a blizzard in a mountain pass. As the only male cetacean in the Mountain West, he was able to personally carry the survivors of the ill-fated party through ice-choked river waters, a task which would have critically injured nearly any other volunteer. He became a local church leader subsequently married several more aquatic women who had immigrated to Utah; several sons and grandsons were sent on missions to Hawai’i, Canada, and New Zealand to gather more of their kinsfolk, with success that, in comparison to efforts elsewhere, ranked as spectacular. With this start, the Canuteson brood grew rapidly, giving rise to the only cetacean community in the United States away from either coast. Some even say that the legends of the Bear Lake monster originated with travelers, ignorant of the local aquatics, recollecting seeing the many Canuteson children and grandchildren frolicking in the lake’s frigid waters.

That legend, combined with her large size, is where Samantha Canuteson made her moniker, “Bear Lake Monster,” catch on when she started for Joseph Smith University’s basketball team the first semester of her freshman year in fall 2011. The school had only recently integrated the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the members of the latter, previously given the same short shrift in the public eye as most all-women sports teams, found themselves struggling to win the hearts of fans. Some, sensitive to sexism, say that Canuteson’s androgynous appearance, common among cetaceans, and unisex name could have caused fans to mistake her for a man, but among JSU’s biggest fan base—Mormon alumni—her sex was well-known from her high school days. In fact, the summer before entering JSU Sam starred in a nationally-aired ad spot for her church in which she declared, “I’m an aquatic. I’m a daughter. I play basketball. And I’m a Mormon.” Others attribute her popular success to her melding of physical play with a demure, endearing public personality.

Once her relationship with Darius Weldon, a cheetah sprinter for JSU who Sam had been dating since high school, was discovered by the press despite her efforts to keep it to herself, it only built her appeal more. “Adorable” was the most frequently-used tag for pictures of the 7’4” orca walking and laughing in the snow wearing nothing but shorts and a T-shirt with the 5'7" cheetah bundled in a parka.

Sam’s rising star collided with other wishes when it was announced in October 2012 that Mormon women could begin serving missions at age 19 instead of 21. Darius had left on his (to Russia) that summer, with Sam promising to wait for him to return. With the age change, though, she faced a choice; after careful deliberation, she announced that she would be taking 18 months off from college and basketball to complete her missionary assignment, in Taiwan. When she departed in January 2013, the effect on the team was notable, and fans eagerly awaited her return amid fears that she had doomed her career.

She returned in summer 2014 and immediately immersed herself in basketball. The fans’ worried that her first few starts, in which she appeared rusty and succumbed to common aquatic mistakes, confirmed their fears, but as the season went on Sam’s recovery accelerated. Indeed, commentators started to observe that it seemed the mission had strengthened her self-discipline, enabling her to buckle down to the hard work of polishing performance instead of relying on natural talent and instinct.

Late in 2014, she announced that she would be entering her name into the FBA draft that year. “While I am doing well at the college level,” she said in the news release, “I have the talent to excel in the big leagues and want to use it the best I can. And trust me, I can!” Her disarming smile and pose spoofing Rosie the Riveter made it into every Utah newspaper sports section the next day.

In the midst of her meteoric rise, Sam proposed to Darius on New Year's Day in 2015. At the moment, it appears that Darius will stay in Utah to run for JSU and continue his studies while his future wife pursues the FBA. For the moment, they are enjoying their first few months of their engagement, shuttling between class, the gym, and their nondescript apartments with poor heating.

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Well, there we go! Sam Canuteson’s personal background. I still need to work out how she got into basketball and her play style (what was that? this is a basketball league? Oh. Okay then.), but I’m happy with her so far!