WAILUKU, Hawaii – When the Rams took the field for their minicamp workouts at War Memorial Stadium in Maui, you knew when Puka Nacua arrived because he always received the loudest cheers.
Whether it was the youth in attendance for one of Tuesday or Wednesday's post-practice clinics, or the overall audience for Wednesday's practice, the wide receiver of Samoan, Hawaiian and Portuguese descent felt the warm welcome throughout the Rams' time on Maui.
"It feels like home," Nacua said after Tuesday's practice. "As soon as we got off the plane, the first person, he gave me a big hug and he had a big smile and he's like, 'Thank you so much for everyone you do for the Polynesian community.' That's how I expected it to be, to have a warm welcome, somebody to hug. I thought he was going to have spam musubi. He didn't, but it was alright, we got it after."
Nacua went onto the field wearing Kyren Williams' No. 23 practice jersey, thinking the fans would rush the running back instead of him, "but I forgot the hair and everything," he said, referring to his long hair tied into a bun, and that "I'm a little bit bigger than Kyren." Each player arrived with their helmet off, so it was impossible for Nacua and his big smile to go unrecognized by the many Hawaiian fans and young Polynesian athletes who look up to him.
An active and involved coach when the Rams hosted a girls flag football clinic Tuesday afternoon, Nacua is becoming admired in the same way he looked up to Polynesian NFL players like Troy Polamalu, Marcus Mariota and JuJu Smith-Schuster growing up. A lengthy line greeted Nacua at his autograph session at the Rams' pop up shop at Wailea Village – where he also received some of that spam musubi.
"I guess it doesn't feel real," Nacua said. "I feel like I'm the same age as these little kids. I'm having a blast. It doesn't feel real sometimes, (that) people are wearing my jersey. But I hope they carry the things that our part of culture, respect, to have the honor and the discipline to represent your family, but also those things that carry and translate directly to football."
Nacua enjoyed his time in Maui and being part of the Rams' efforts to get back to the island predominately affected by the Hawaiian wildfires of early August 2023. He hopes the organization returns in the future.
"I think it's something that we all can relate to," Nacua said. "It's something like, being able to understand and have that empathy of like this is a similar situation to what we were in, and I wasn't directly impacted by the (Los Angeles) fires, but to know the support that you want to give to those people who are going through that issue, and to see how it can change and bring a community closer together in that time, I think our team has felt that.
"And to be able to come back and give back to these kids and see a smile on their face, and to help make sure they have a good time, is something that I always want to be a part of. I know our team and the Rams organization, being able to come back here, they were saying last night at the luau that they've been doing camps and tours here since 1973 and I'm like, 'I'm glad I was able to be a part of that first time we've come back in a little while.' So hopefully minicamp's here every year. It'll be a good vacation for us all."
