Maiava set to become 1st Polynesian starting quarterback at USC
Nov 15, 2024
LOS ANGELES >> Before he’d ever played the position, Jayden Maiava had a sense of what a Samoan quarterback could mean to his community. Growing up in Palolo Valley in a big Samoan family, he’d felt that power firsthand. Like so many other boys his age in the islands, he watched Marcus Mariota at Oregon and Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama with a sense of awe and wonder. He watched as the whole of Hawaii seemed to galvanize around them and boys emulated them, promising their friends they would be the next Marcus or Tua someday.