Yelm Middle School student Isaiah Pua, 11, made the most of his trip to Arizona for the D1 Nation All-American Bowl last week, as his team, Team Washington, won the 11-U championship.
Along with the title win, Pua started at quarterback and safety and rarely got breaks from action as he was on the kickoff, kick return and punt return units.
Though Pua has only known his teammates on Team Washington for around a year, he had a great time competing with his new teammates and building strong camaraderie throughout the trip.
“First and foremost, I’d like to thank God. I’d also like to thank all of the Yelm community for supporting me throughout this trip, along with my coaches and my parents,” Pua told the Nisqually Valley News on Monday, Jan. 27. “It felt great to win the championship. I was running around the field and celebrating with my teammates, and that was such a great feeling. It felt awesome to share that moment with my teammates because we say we’re cousins, but I just met them last year. It’s very fun hanging out with those kids that you get to know very well.”
Isaiah’s father, Isaac, said the 11th annual D1 Nation All-American Bowl had a great turnout with strong competition. Team Washington and the D1 Nation All-American Bowl will continue to grow over the next several years.
“Isaiah was on the field almost every play. He did well this tournament and had a pretty good statline that weekend. I’m super proud of him,” Isaac Pua said. “This 100% helped develop my son as a football player. I believe when we go to any type of national tournament, we get to see the level of play at that age division, for Isaiah to see how he matches up against the athletes from team Arizona, team New Jersey and team Colorado. He and his team beat all three of those teams. It was a good indicator of where Isaiah and his teammates are at.”
Isaac added that Isaiah finished the tournament with two rushing touchdowns, four passing touchdowns and two interceptions as a safety. Isaiah said the tournament was exhausting, as he rarely got a break but noted it was well worth it.
“I did pretty good, it’s just I have a lot of things to work on. I could do better with mostly my eyesight on the field and reading the defense,” Pua said. “In this tournament, I was good at building chemistry with my teammates. It was very easy to build chemistry with them because you get to know them easily. It was a great experience to be able to look at the offense from the safety position and to look at the defense from the quarterback position.”
With the D1 Nation All American Bowl in the rearview mirror, Isaac Pua said Isaiah will continue to train for football as he plays 7-on-7 for Total Sports Development. He’ll attend several big 7-on-7 tournaments in Yelm and Portland before making the transition into baseball. Once baseball is over, Isaiah will dive right back into tackle football.