Every member of Kevin Sumlin’s inaugural staff with the Arizona Wildcats had FBS coaching experience except one.
Sumlin’s choice to tutor the defensive line came from a junior college. He had a long, lyrical name. Little was known about him beyond his 198-word bio on the Mt. San Antonio College website.
But in a couple of specific, significant spheres, Iona Uiagalelei is a towering figure. His ties to the Polynesian and junior college communities run deep.
“Iona is like a father figure to me,” said Bojay Filimoeatu, who played for Uiagalelei at Mt. SAC and is now the linebackers coach at San Jose State. “When we talk, it feels like not a day has gone by.”
Filimoeatu appeared in eight games in 2014 with the Oakland Raiders, who currently employ another of Uiagalelei’s pupils, Bruce Irvin. Irvin went from Mt. SAC to West Virginia to the first round of the 2012 NFL draft.
“He would do anything for Iona,” Filimoeatu said. “He goes back to Mt. SAC a lot. We all do. That’s home for us. He made it that way.”
Uiagalelei has a new home now, in Tucson, after spending the previous 17 seasons at Mt. SAC in Walnut, California, about 25 miles east of Los Angeles. He became the Mounties’ defensive coordinator in 2006 and their associate head coach in 2010. Mt. SAC won a pair of community-college national championships during his time there.
Uiagalelei was happy at Mt. SAC, but the last couple of years he felt that maybe it was time to move to a higher level. On a Monday during the offseason, he received a phone call from a former Mounties colleague, Demetrice Martin. They talked regularly, but this time Martin had an agenda: He was about to be hired as Arizona’s cornerbacks coach. The school was interested in Uiagalelei as well.
“A couple days later, I was offered the job,” Uiagalelei said Wednesday. “It happened so fast. I didn’t even have time to tell my wife until I got the call.”
Uiagalelei, wife Nerissa and their five kids are in the process of relocating; Nerissa and the four youngest children are in Tucson this week on spring break. House hunting is on their to-do list.
But the Wildcats are in the throes of spring practice, so that’s occupying most of Uiagalelei’s time. He has coached countless players who went on to four-year colleges and a handful of future pros. Filimoeatu was planning to attend Snow College in Utah before visiting Mt. SAC, where Uiagalelei won him over.
“I fell in love with how hard he trained his players, how well he knew the defense,” Filimoeatu said. “Ask anybody at Mt. SAC, anyone on the coaching staff, any player — the hardest working unit is Coach Iona’s. There’s no time where we’re resting. The best shape I’ve ever been in is when I was with Coach Iona.”
But it was the personal relationship Filimoeatu had with Uiagalelei that meant the most to him. Uiagalelei would have the defensive line over for dinner on Thursday nights. Iona and Nerissa usually would serve chicken (baked, boiled or fried), rice and other traditional Polynesian fare.
“A lot of the D-linemen were out-of-state kids,” Uiagalelei said. “Junior college? They don’t eat a home-cooked meal. They’re eating Top Ramen.”
Uiagalelei said many of the linemen were related to him. They’d ask to bring friends over.
“It became everybody,” Uiagalelei said. “I can’t say no. They all know our house.”
Uiagalelei developed a particularly close bond with the Polynesian players under his watch. It’s a tight-knit community. For example: Former Arizona quarterback George Malauulu discovered about 10 years ago that he’s related to Uiagalelei. Their families are from neighboring villages in American Samoa.
Malauulu has known Uiagalelei since they were teenagers playing basketball against each other in the L.A. area. Malauulu was ecstatic to learn that Uiagalelei had taken the UA job.
“It’s not just because of the knowledge he has but the kind of person he is,” Malauulu said. “He’s a players’ coach. He’s like Coach Akina (former Arizona assistant Duane Akina, who’s now at Stanford). He was that coach. I would die for this coach. Iona’s players will go all out.”
Malauulu is the president of the AIGA Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has provided scholarship opportunities for Polynesian student-athletes for more than 20 years. Malauulu played for Dick Tomey, who established a strong Polynesian pipeline while at Hawaii and extended it to Tucson. The pipeline did not flow as freely under Sumlin’s predecessor, Rich Rodriguez.
“Arizona really hasn’t been high on the depth chart as far as Polynesians are concerned … recently,” Malauulu said.
He believes Uiagalelei can help “change that tide.”
“He’s going to pull in some kids,” Malauulu said. “When he’s finished with them, those kids are going to be ready to rock and roll. And if they don’t get into the league (the NFL), he’s going to have them ready for life.”
Uiagalelei is well aware that the pipeline needs to be rebuilt. In almost 20 years of coaching, he has established relationships with Polynesian families at home (Utah, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska) and abroad (Tonga, Samoa).
Working with defensive analyst Davy Gnodle, Uiagalelei already has made inroads. Visitors to Arizona this spring include Polynesian prospects Noa Pola-Gates, Noah Sewell, Kingsley Suamataia and Daniel Tootoo.
“You go to the coaches who come from the same background as you. They understand you,” Filimoeatu said. “For us Polynesians, we come from a very small percentage of this world. Once you see a Polynesian, you feel at home. All of us treat each other as family.”
Just because Uiagalelei has those connections doesn’t mean every top Polynesian prospect will commit to Arizona. As he noted, Polynesian coaches are “everywhere” now.
But with Uiagalelei on staff, the Wildcats will have as good a shot as anyone.
“I get it,” he said. “They want the pipeline to get started again. That’s what I did at Mt. SAC. I’m going to get that started here at Arizona.”
