Big Lineman Chews Up Big Meals and the Opposition

You are what you kai --that is, if you’re a 6-foot-4, 320-pound lineman named Christian Maumalanga.

It takes a lot of groceries to keep a young man the size of Maumalanga--the behemoth of Bishop Montgomery High School--in fighting form for flinging opposing linemen around the football field on Friday nights.

Kai, quite simply, means eat in the language of the South Pacific island of Tonga, where Maumalanga’s family comes from. It’s a word he has been hearing from his mother since he was knee-high to, well, an elephant.

Maumalanga has such a healthy appetite, in fact, that he was decidedly unimpressed when he read the April 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, which detailed the staggering consumption of Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Tony Mandarich. The 6-6, 315-pound Mandarich reportedly puts away seven meals and between 12,000 and 15,000 calories a day.

“That’s nothing extraordinary,” Maumalanga said. “I’m a big eater. I might be a little bit full, though.”

Maumalanga obviously doesn’t miss too many meals. He outlined his approach to culinary delights thus:

“I get up at 6 a.m., and I get ready to go downstairs and chomp.”

Last Friday, in Bishop Montgomery’s 10-0 victory over North Torrance, Maumalanga chewed his way through his share of unlucky opponents as well.

He sacked the quarterback two times, turned in seven solo tackles and assisted on five others. He also dominated on the other side of the ball. Following Maumalanga’s ample posterior, Bishop Montgomery tailback Marvin Negrete scampered for 135 yards.

And for a young man his size, Maumalanga is not slow. He runs a 5.1-second 40-yard dash and is strong enough to bench-press 390 pounds. He has made a believer of Steve Carroll, Bishop Montgomery’s first-year coach, with his overpowering play at nose guard.

“Christian just picks up the center and literally takes him back into the quarterback,” said Carroll. “Right into the backfield.”

“It’s really tough for some of these poor centers. It’s almost impossible for even two guys to get any movement out of Christian.”

Maumalanga played nose guard for the Knights last year as a junior. This year, he’s earning his spurs on the other side of the trenches--at offensive tackle.

“He’s excellent at both pass blocking and run blocking,” Carroll said. “It’s very difficult to get past him, and without getting him to go to his knees, no one can stop him, either.”

Last year, Maumalanga’s line play wasn’t as refined. South Torrance wide receiver Johnny Morton (now at USC) was disabled for two weeks last year after Maumalanga landed on him in a pileup.

But Carroll predicts that by the end of the year, Maumalanga will be one of the premier offensive linemen in the state, even though he is more experienced on defense.

So do many others. Maumalanga was listed as one of the top 50 recruitable athletes in the state by California Football magazine, and in the top 100 in the nation by Blue Chip magazine. So far, recruiters from Washington, UC Berkeley, Arizona State and Kansas have come calling for Maumalanga’s services.

And as if Maumalanga’s line play isn’t fearsome enough, picture the giant in black, with No. 78 stretched across his jersey, looming in Bishop Montgomery’s backfield at fullback.

It’s a frightening reality. Carroll has had Maumalanga run the ball at fullback, like the Chicago Bears’ William (The Refrigerator) Perry.

The play is aptly named The Tank.

“We have what we think is an extraordinary physical specimen,” said Carroll. “So we’d like to put Chris in as many situations as he can be advantageous to us.”

So far, Maumalanga has carried the ball only once, for seven yards, in Bishop Montgomery’s 27-0 opening loss to Leuzinger. But he’s thrown a few fullback blocks as well.

“I get to crank up and run as quick as I can,” Maumalanga said. “And I get to knock over whoever is in my way.”

Maumalanga has always been the biggest guy around. He’s usually the biggest one on the basketball courts in Hawthorne, where he lives and shoots hoops on weekends with Leuzinger football players Jonas Woodring, Zak Odom and Jim Justice.

In the sixth grade, Maumalanga weighed 260 pounds. When he was 14, he tipped the scales at 315. He was definitely the guy you wanted on your side for a schoolyard game of “Smear the Guy With the Ball.”

But being big isn’t without its problems, Maumalanga is quick to point out. He has a 44-inch waist, but his thighs are so big he buys size-48 Levi’s 501 jeans. And he has to wear Triple-XL shirts with an 18 1/2-inch collar.

“I see all these guys with 32-inch waists, and they’re all in fashion,” Maumalanga said. “I just gotta dress in jeans and a regular shirt. Most of the time you won’t see me in stylish clothes, and I have to special-order my suits.”

From Eagleson’s Big & Tall and Big Fella Men’s Wear.

Maumalanga was born in Redwood City, but his parents were born in Tonga and have relatives there. Maumalanga and his family return to Tonga, a group of 170 atolls between Fiji and New Zealand, once a year.

Maumalanga’s late grandfather was a nobleman in the court of the island kingdom. He had his own personal island, two miles long and a mile wide, which has passed into the possession of Maumalanga’s uncle. The island is called Ovaka, which in Tongan means boat.

“Clear water and white sand,” Maumalanga said. “It’s great. It’s rural, and you just kick back under the palm trees and chomp on mangoes and drink coconuts.’

And fresh fish. Maumalanga fishes the shoreline at Ovaka with a kupega, a round net with weights on the side, and hauls in his share of reef fish. He hopes to go back to Tonga in December, summer in the Southern Hemisphere, if his schoolwork permits.

In the meantime, Maumalanga spends his time in Bishop Montgomery’s recently refurbished weight room. Over the summer, he set marks of 870 pounds in the leg press, 390 in the bench press and 300 in the power clean at the weightlifting competition at the Pepsi Grid-Hoops Festival at El Camino College.

“People look at me and say, ‘Six-four, 320, that guy’s a big, fat sucker,’ ” Maumalanga said. “I’m not as fat as people think.”

He also is a decent hand on the basketball court. And he excelled at baseball as a youth, when he was too heavy to play Pop Warner football. He’s considering playing those sports at Bishop Montgomery this year, time permitting.

“I’d like to go out there and set a couple of picks,” Maumalanga said.

Nail down your backboards and hide your catchers.