Newest In Clan Has Polamalu Talent, Not The Hair

Maika Polamalu is a football player on the fast track to a Division I future. The Pottsgrove (Pa.) senior doubles as a bruising running back and a run-stopping defensive back and linebacker. None of that is surprising. In fact, given his surname, it might be more surprising if Polamalu wasn't a budding football star.

 

Still, the muscle-bound 18-year-old isn't as obvious a Polamalu as some might think. Unlike his cousin, hair-so-beautiful-it-needs-an-insurance-policy Steelers uber-presence Troy Polamalu, Maika's hair is more closely cropped. He even sported a slight mohawk at a March combine.

And unlike Troy or his uncle, USC offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu, Maika is unlikely to spend his college career at USC in sunny Southern California. Still, the latest to add to the Polamalu family's long football pedigree is all but guaranteed to spend his next four years playing college football, and he shows every inclination of living up to the family name in the process.

Polamalu is currently burning up Pennsylvania high school fields during his final season. The Falcons are 3-1, responding from their first loss at Boyerton -- the only game in which Polamalu was held to fewer than 100 yards rushing -- with a 21-10 win over Perkiomen Valley on Friday. Polamalu scored seven touchdowns on 460 yards in the Falcons' first four games, numbers which can only increase interest in the two-way starter. The senior currently has scholarship offers from Temple and Navy, but has also received significant interest from Penn State (where his father played for Joe Paterno), Pittsburgh and Michigan State, among other schools.

When the Falcons star isn't on the field, he's probably in a classroom somewhere. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pottsgrove student athlete is taking a full five classes at the Montgomery County Community College branch in Pottstown. Already sporting a cumulative average of 91, Polamalu is likely to face little problem finishing his high school coursework in December so he can enroll in his chosen school in January for the spring semester and preseason practices. While that standardized "grayshirt" path might not be recommended for all student athletes, Pottsgrove's head football coach doesn't foresee any problems for Polamalu.

"He's a tremendous student," Pottsgrove coach Rick Pennypacker told the Inquirer. "He's a tremendous kid, and I can't say enough good things about the kid."

Regardless of where Maika heads next, his NFL cousin will be rooting for him.

"I never felt pressure because I have uncles and cousins that played at pretty elite levels of college,"

Troy Polamalu told Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It all depends on the parenting. Some parents can put a whole lot of pressure on [their children], and some don't. His parents definitely don't do that."

"It's awesome," the elder Polamalu told Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV. "It is a younger generation of cousins that are starting to come up, so him along with a few other cousins, it's gonna be pretty cool to watch."

Considering the fact that Pittsburgh has recruited the younger Polamalu, it's possible there could be multiple Polamalus keeping an eye on defensive backfields in Heinz Field in the future. Not that there will be any trouble telling the two apart. The hair takes care of that.

"People always ask me why I don't have that kind of hair, and what happened," Maika Polamalu told the Inquirer. "My dad was one of the only few out of his brothers and sisters not to have thick, curly hair. So then, when I'm only half-Samoan, I'm definitely not going to get it."

Luckily for Maika, the hair is a less important familial trait than football aptitude. Though it might only be slightly less valuable, if you ask Head & Shoulders.

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Maika Polamalu Making A Name For Himself

Everyone knows his last name.

And, that alone, has produced expectations and pressure, especially considering that Maika Polamalu may even play the same position in college as his famous cousin.

The thing is, the Pottsgrove High junior has a football role model in his own house. His father, Aoatoa Polamalu (He goes by Ao, which sounds like "Al"), was a starting defensive tackle on the Nittany Lions' national title team in 1986.

His uncle, Kennedy Pola, is now the running backs coach for the Tennessee Titans.

And, of course, his cousin Troy Polamalu is an all-pro safety with the Pittsburgh Steelers.


Maika Polamalu is doing his best to make a name for himself.

Schools such as Penn State and Villanova have shown interest, but he's still waiting on his first written scholarship offers.

"I tell you what, I feel bad for the young man," his father said. "Everybody thinks he's the next Troy. People need to relax and let the kid get better in his own skin. . . . Those who think he should be more have their opinions. It ticks me off at times. I wish they'd just treat him as a junior in high school."

Said Maika: "It was tough as I grew up, but as I matured the pressure eased off, and I realized that I'm my own person and not him."

Certainly, the kid has skills and potential.

He's started since his freshman year on a team with at least two other big-time talents and is now a star running back and linebacker. He may be interested in trying to play college football in California, where his father and aunts and uncles grew up after leaving American Samoa.

For now, he's not sure where things are headed.

"He's big, he's physical . . . almost like a freak of nature," said Rick Pennypacker, his coach at Pottsgrove High. "He's big and strong and runs like a deer.

"But everybody thinks he's Troy Polamalu, and he's not. . . . Everybody compares him. Right away, everybody wants to talk about Troy. Everybody in our school wants Maika to get autographs of Troy, everybody wants Troy to come to our school. The kid just needs to be himself."

His best attribute?

 

"Not another person Penn State recruits works as hard as this kid," Pennypacker said, noting his two hours of daily speed and strength training.

And if the scholarship offers do line up as expected in the coming months, he will have an interesting choice:

Stay close to home, maybe at his father's alma mater? (Ao Polamalu was noticed by the Lions' staff while they were recruiting his brother, Kennedy).

Or he could head out West, where he was born, where much of his large family still lives and where he could truly be immersed in his heritage.

"I think Maika missed out on a lot of that. . . . I learned everything from my brothers and sisters about my heritage," said his father, the youngest of 11 kids.

"Taking him to a reunion, he's amazed. It's really neat seeing him smile, realizing that he's part of such a family."

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Polamalu's Cousin Following In His Footsteps

There are few players more recognizable in the NFL than Troy Polamalu with his hits, his hands and of course, his hair.

He's become an icon in Western Pennsylvania in just seven short years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

However, in the eastern part of the state, there's another Polamalu who is turning heads as well.

Maika Polamalu is a junior at Pottsgrove High School, which is northwest of Philadelphia.

He is being recruited by area schools such as Pitt and Penn State, all of whom would love to have a Polamalu on their team.

"It's awesome. It is a younger generation of cousins that are starting to come up, so him along with a few other cousins, it's gonna be pretty cool to watch," Troy Polamalu said.

"Maika is the kind of kid that comes from a great family of football. His dad was a great athlete at Penn State, his uncle was a great athlete at USC and is now a running back coach with Jaguars," Rick Pennypacker said.

Now Maika, a running back and linebacker, appears to be the next leaf on the family tree to excel in football.

"I've been working with my dad since seventh, eighth grade. I've just been coming out here running my miles, getting my workouts in daily, just doing what I think I have to do," Maika Polamalu said.

While success on the field has been easy for Maika, off the field, it's a little harder due to the standard set by the Polamalu in Pittsburgh.

"I try telling Maika he's not Troy Polamalu, he's Maika Polamalu. The name is always gonna follow him. I think he's greatest player in the NFL and I don't know if Maika will ever live up to that, but everyone expects him to," Pennypacker said.

One possibility is that should Maika make it to the NFL, that he would get to play with Troy.

"That would be awesome. I don't know if I can last that long though," Troy Polamalu said.

"That'd be amazing. If he's still in there and I make it that far, it'd be an honor," Maika Polamalu said.

Unfortunately, Troy has never been able to make it out to Pottstown to see Maika play.

However, that hasn't stopped him from letting his biased opinion be known that Maika should play college football at the University of Southern California.

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