Remembering Vei Moala: Former Grant Pacers, Cal Golden Bears football ‘legend’ dead at 30
Vei Moala was all grins and walking thunder.
The one-time Grant High School five-star All-American defensive lineman who played in the trenches at Cal wasn’t much for handshakes and brief conversation. He was a hugger, the full treatment, and you felt every ounce of it when the 6-foot-2, 330-pound bear of a man got his arms around you.
People who knew Moala will miss the grins, the chatter, the thunder and the hugs. He died Thursday after an illness at just 30 years old, rocking the Moala family, which lives for each other and for football, and shaking a Del Paso Heights community that embraces its sports achievers and young role models.
A Sacramento-area resident, Moala leaves behind two children and scores of memories as an all-time Grant great who was even more beloved for his kindness. He was The Bee’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2010, capping a dominating three-year varsity career for Grant teams that were nationally ranked and went a combined 40-3. He was a no-brainer to make The Bee’s All-Decade Team for the 2000s.
“We lost a great one,” Grant football coach Carl Reed said. “A major, major loss. He was larger than life, a great player and a great man. Everyone loved him. He’s one of our legendary ones.”
The legend was no myth in Del Paso Heights, where Moala grew up as one of four sons to parents Lupe and Nauela Moala, natives of Tonga who immigrated to the United States in the early 1980s.
Moala starred as a sophomore nose guard on Grant’s 14-0 team in 2008, a team that won the first CIF state Open Division championship with a triumph over nationally ranked No. 2 Long Beach Poly in Carson. As a junior in 2009, Moala warded off off double-teams — or plowed right through them — to record 115 tackles and 15 sacks, helping the Pacers go 12-1.
As a senior in 2010, Moala registered 16 sacks and 131 tackles for a Grant team that was state-ranked No. 1 by Cal-Hi Sports for 13 weeks. He also blocked three punts and a field goal, an indication of how nimble the big man was.
Grant’s first U.S. Army All-American, Moala played in 35 of 37 possible games at Cal on the defensive line. He had scholarship offers from programs across the country. He elected to play at Cal to be close to home so his family could watch him compete in Berkeley and so he could come home to visit during the offseason.
Moala once told The Bee: “Nothing better than a home-cooked meal, and to get some laundry done.”
Moala turned heads for how he “ate blockers alive,” Reed said, and for his remarkable weight room prowess. As a Grant senior, Moala bench pressed 500 pounds, leading to a roar of cheers in the weight room and leading then-Cal coach Jeff Tedford to remark: “He’s already got the Cal bench-press record before he even gets here.”
In his final season at Cal, Moala bench pressed 520 pounds, telling The Bee: “That can really bend a bar.”
Moala was big on humor, fitting since he was big in size, big in hair, big in stature and big in personality. Upon watching his similarly large and kindhearted father ease out of the old family pickup truck to watch kid brother Moses play at Grant in 2013, Moala said: “We’re heavy! The truck feels it.”
On living solo in a Cal dorm, he once said: “Even when it’s just me in here, it always feels like the heater is on.”
Moala was inspired by his cousin and Grant great Christian Tupou, The Bee’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, who went on to play at USC. Moala vowed to earn the same honor and did so as the overwhelming choice for the award in 2010.
Moala similarly inspired his brothers — David, Pou and Moses — to excel at Grant as students and players. Moala was on the Baltimore Ravens practice squad in 2014. He soon returned to his roots and would attend Grant games, drawing a crowd much like he drew double-teams as a player.
“Great family, amazing people,” said Reed, the Grant coach. “He was our gentle giant. He got along with everyone. Even people who didn’t really know him, but ran into him, have said or posted on social media: ‘He’s so nice.’ That was Vei.”
Grant, ranked third by The Bee and the defending CIF state Division 3-AA champion, will play the remainder of the season in honor of their fallen Pacer. They will do so on a campus where the decades-long motto remains: “Pacer4Life.”
