Five-star quarterback and UCLA commit Madden Iamaleava has enrolled at Long Beach Poly along with his younger sisters, volleyball players McKennah and Ellie Iamaleava. Also enrolled is Iamaleava’s fellow UCLA commit, receiver Jace Brown.
All four are applying for immediate eligibility with the CIF Southern Section, with valid change of residence paperwork expected to go in from the school today or tomorrow.
“All the kids are officially enrolled at Poly,” said the Iamaleavas’ father, Nic. It had been reported that Madden had transferred recently, but the family was holding off on whether he would play football or not until the girls were enrolled in the school, which they now are.
A senior ranked in the top ten quarterbacks in the nation, Iamaleava began the season at Warren alongside Brown. Younger sisters McKennah and Ellie Iamaleava are both standout volleyball players and Brown is a 6-4 pass-catcher with speed and hands.
Madden attended Poly for a semester earlier in his high school career before transferring back to Warren with his older brother Nico, who’s currently looking like the best quarterback in the NCAA for Tennessee. Nico and Madden were on the Poly volleyball team together, and older siblings Matt (a Long Beach State signee) and Nicaylah Iamaleava were both standouts for the Jackrabbits volleyball teams as well.
While there has been headlines and drama in the high school sports world surrounding the transfers between Poly and Warren, the Iamaleava kids have remained well-liked, popular student-athletes among coaches and administrators. There’s plenty of transfer paperwork and eligibility questions to be answered ahead, but the move back into Poly is significant, and could dramatically boost the level of play for both the Poly football and volleyball programs.
Madden Iamaleava arrives at a time when Poly has just one quarterback on the varsity roster after injuries to one QB and a midseason transfer from Poly to Los Al by another. The Jackrabbits have struggled offensively with just 34 points in their first two games and 21 points last week against Serra. The issues have come despite a packed wide receiver corps that includes more than a half dozen scholarship-offered pass-catchers, and now another with Brown transferring in.
“We’re back home in Long Beach, we’re just trying to finish it off,” said Nic Iamaleava. “It’s a personal decision (to leave Warren). We trust the development at Poly to help get him ready for UCLA.”
Poly football will be at home this Friday against Jordan at Veterans Memorial Stadium; it’s unlikely that any clearances would happen prior to that game. The next two weeks see Poly facing Lakewood and then Mission Viejo in a big game at SoFi Stadium, before they travel to Millikan for a pivotal Moore League game.
