2023 QB @nico_iamaleava8 Is A Prospect On The Rise
After his freshman season at Long Beach Poly, quarterback Nico Iamaleava transferred to Warren HS in Downey. It was a pretty good move.
Four games into his junior season, the 6-foot-6-inch signal-caller is one of the top recruits in the country … and his reputation continues to grow. After a solid spring season in which he threw for over 1,000 yards in four games for the Bears, Iamaleava started the 2021 fall season with a bang.
In the video below, you’ll see the Warren quarterback throw for seven touchdown passes in a season-opening 53-0 victory over Woodrow Wilson. Even more impressive was that Iamaleava was done in third quarter giving way to his 6-3 freshman brother Madden, who finished the game.
Early Season Heroics
To say Iamaleava has been on fire is probably an understatement. After the seven-touchdown performance against Woodrow Wilson, he came right back with a five-TD outing in a win over La Serna.
Iamaleava was even more efficient in Game 2 as he completed 23-of-29 passes (79.3%) for 208 yards and the five scores. The Bears defense was equally strong allowing just 184 yards of total offense as Warren won 52-7.
Through the first four games of the 2021 season, Iamaleava has already bettered his performance from the spring. He is 88-for-148 for 1,242 yards – an average of 310.5 yards per game – with 20 touchdown passes and just one interception.
The Bears didn’t lose a game in the spring are on their way to another perfect regular season. They will play next at Culver City on Friday, Sept. 17. Culver City is 2-1 so far this season.
The Scouting Report
The first thing anyone notices about Iamaleava is, of course, his height. It runs in the family. Nicholaus Sr., the Warren quarterback’s father, is an assistant coach at Warren and is a tall guy. So is the aforementioned younger brother Madden.
At 6-6, Iamaleava weighs in around 200 to 205 pounds. His frame can accommodate more weight, which will come as he matures. Even if he wasn’t 6-6, you would also notice his live right arm. The kid can sling it.
He has every attribute you can identify in an FBS starting quarterback. You can see most of them on display in these highlights from the spring season.
What Iamaleava also has is toughness and grit. That was put on display in the spring when he broke a finger just days before Warren’s first game. It was on his non-throwing hand and the injury occurred when he stiff-armed a teammate. Of note also was that the break was a compound fracture.
In a sort of old-school “rub some dirt on it and you’ll be fine” way, Iamaleava sought out several opinions until he found a specialist that cleared him to play. Initially, he was to miss four to six weeks which would have meant the entire spring season. Instead, the big junior began his assault on SoCal defenses.
In addition to the intangibles like toughness and grit, Iamaleava is just a great athlete. He’s also a volleyball player and you can see his athleticism in this clip of him excelling on the volleyball court.
The Future
Iamaleava holds roughly two dozen scholarship offers from many of the biggest football programs in the country. This summer started off with this offer from Ohio State.
The Warren quarterback had participated in a camp at Ohio State and later received the offer from Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day. Iamaleava did the same in Alabama and was offered by the Crimson Tide less than a week later.
For now, Warren’s star will focus on his Bear teammates and the rest of their season. In due time, he’ll have a decision to make, and there is no doubt Iamaleava will have several options from which to choose.
