Sualua Trims Down, Shapes Up : Prep football: Mater Dei senior lost weight to earn starting fullback job.

SANTA ANA — Before Nicky Sualua could carry the football at Mater Dei High School, he had to quit carrying some extra baggage.

While transferring from Santiago to Mater Dei after his freshman year, Sualua, the Monarchs’ senior fullback-defensive lineman, watched his weight swell from 230 pounds to 265.

Sporting flabby legs and a spare tire around his waist was no way to show up on the doorstep of one of the top football programs in Orange County.

So he did something about it.

Sualua didn’t go out for football after transferring, and the Monarch coaches persuaded him to try out for wrestling that winter to help him lose weight.

“I was very out of shape,” Sualua said. “We would run gassers (sprints) back and forth across the field and I would always be the last guy to finish.”

Coaches put him on a strict diet--no more Taro, one of his favorite Samoan dishes, or corned beef. He survived on fruits, nuts, water and desire.

Wrestling practices were hell for him. There was a lot of “running in a little, hot room,” one-on-one wrestling with fellow heavyweights and plenty of weightlifting.

By the end of the wrestling season, he had lost 20 pounds. By the end of the school year, he was back to 220 pounds.

“I didn’t even know I had lost it,” he said. “My legs were a lot lighter, and I felt a lot faster.”

By the start of the football season, Sualua weighed 230 pounds and won the starting fullback job on the Monarchs’ Southern Section Division I championship team.

Although quarterback Billy Blanton was the hub of the Monarch offense last season, Sualua made the most of the few opportunities to carry the ball. He carried 42 times for 281 yards, averaging 6.7 yards per carry, and scored five touchdowns.

On defense, Sualua had 80 tackles, including 46 unassisted, and led the team in sacks with 11 1/2 (the Monarchs had a school-record 54 as a team last season). He earned first-team all-Angelus League honors as a defensive lineman.

Sualua reported to fall camp this season at 5 feet 11 220 pounds. His weight hasn’t been a factor since his sophomore year.

“I can pretty much eat anything I want,” he said.

He has lost weight, but gained strength, speed and power. He bench presses 345 pounds and can still level a linebacker and drag a defensive back a few extra yards.

He will start both ways in the Monarchs’ season-opener against rival Servite at 7:30 tonight at Cal State Fullerton.

SuperPrep magazine ranks him among the top 60 West Coast recruits, and he already has been contacted by Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Nevada Las Vegas.

Although not fast, Sualua has quick feet and the freight-train power to plow through a collegiate secondary. That’s the main reason the Big Eight colleges, traditional running powers, are so interested in him.

“I think the bigger schools will question his height as a defensive lineman,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “He hasn’t played linebacker, but I think he could in college.

“He’ll be recruited a lot more as the year goes on because coaches will get to see more of him as a fullback. We’re going to feature him more this year, a lot more than last year. But he can dominate on both sides of the ball.”

Easygoing and always smiling, Sualua doesn’t appear to be one of the toughest players Rollinson has coached. But he is.

Rollinson said Sualua plays in more pain than any player he has seen.

Sualua played last year on a twisted knee and a bruised Achilles’ tendon, and Rollinson practically had to drag him out of games and practices. That’s no easy task.

“I had to pull him out of practice a couple of times because he had refused to come out on his own,” Rollinson said. “That’s the kind of kid he is. He enjoys playing the game so much, he doesn’t want to come out.”

Growing up in Santa Ana, Sualua didn’t play tackle football until his freshman year at Santiago, where he played offensive guard and defensive tackle on the freshman team.

He was usually too big or too heavy for Jr. All-American or Pop Warner teams, so he played pickup games with neighbors and family members.

After his freshman season, Sualua discussed his situation at Santiago with his uncle, former Mater Dei running backs Kennedy and Al Pola.

Al and Kennedy, now a volunteer assistant coach at UCLA, persuaded their nephew to give Mater Dei a try.

“My uncles thought it would be the best choice for me,” Sualua said. “My parents thought so too. And I always go with what they say.”

The oldest of Sualua and Moana Sualua’s seven children, Nicky is setting an example for his three younger brothers and three sisters.

“There’s a lot of pressure on you being the oldest,” Nicky said. “You’re the first to do everything, and your brothers and sisters look up to you. They don’t always show it, but you know they’re proud of you.”

The family members are regulars at Mater Dei football games. They’re also at Nicky’s wrestling matches, where they cheered him to a 20-4 record and the second round of the Southern Section tournament last season.

Sualua plans to wrestle again this season, although not because he needs the exercise.

After all, he can pull more than just his own weight now.