NZ born Samoan recruited by University of California, despite never playing a game in the US
Ieremia Moore’s donning the University of California, Berkeley gear next season after having had three top schools chasing him.
His choice came down to three schools - CAL, UCLA and Duke and a couple of weeks ago he committed to the University of California.
Ieremia left a close-knit family behind to pursue his football dream but says his multi-ethnic heritage makes him feels at home in America's melting pot.
"My mother is Samoan with a little part Chinese," he said. "But I don't know much about my biological father except that he's a New Zealand Caucasian and part Maori."
As a football player, Moore played the sport at the club level in New Zealand and arrived in California to play football, but the pandemic has prevented him from playing games for St. John Bosco.
Yet he's taken part in different camps and made an impressive showing, receiving defensive lineman most valuable player honors at the SoCal National Preps Showcase.
He went to California in September 2019, but because he moved without his parents, he was ineligible to play during the 2019 season because of CIF rules. He couldn't play in 2020 because the pandemic postponed high school football in the state of California. So he has yet to play in an organized football game.