Desert Pines’ signal caller elevates his game

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | 5:24 p.m.

Nobody would have questioned his dedication if Desert Pines quarterback Dalton Leilua had decided to skip Saturday's Southern Nevada Coaches Association skills competition. After all, he had just competed in another recruiting event earlier in the day and had spent four hours driving back to Las Vegas from Moorpark, Calif.

But neither the long trip nor the back-to-back workouts slowed him down. Not much has in his career with the Jaguars. It's just that Leilua has flown under the radar with Desert Pines, which has not been one of the valley's marquee programs.

In roughly one hour of offensive drills, Leilua showed off his talent at the Coaches Association competition, making every throw — down field passes, out patterns and quick slants across the middle — look easy. The zip and accuracy of his passes was clearly one of the top performances of the evening.

The event featured three to five of the top players from most of the Las Vegas Valley's 33 large-school classification teams and Leilua showed he will arguably be Southern Nevada's top quarterback next fall.

However, it might not have even been Leilua's best effort of the day.

He participated in the A.I.G.A Foundation combine in Moorpark earlier in the day with 200 of the nation's top Polynesian recruits. The foundation was started by former college football quarterback George Malauulu to bring exposure to the quality of football in the Pacific Islander community.

Leilua will be a third-year starter this fall, and if he performs like he did at Valley, Desert Pines coach Paul Bennett likes his team's chances in the Northeast Division.

"He's such a great competitor," Bennett said. "It's fun to watch him step up and compete. He has the ability to do some special things and he works hard at it."

Leilua is soft-spoken and doesn't draw attention to himself — one of the other reasons he may not be more well known. But with the help of the foundation, a non-profit with the backing of corporate sponsors like the NFL, Home Depot, adidas and Pepsi, and his obvious arm strength, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Leilua has his eyes set on earning a Division I scholarship.

He's received letters of interest from schools such as Oregon, Hawaii and Kansas State but has yet to receive a scholarship offer.

"I just want to play football," Leilua said. "I don't care about being famous or where I play, I just want to play."

It's that type of attitude that makes him a perfect fit at Desert Pines.

The Jaguars took third in the Northeast last year, despite struggling at times offensively. As a result, Leilua only passed for 789 yards and seven touchdowns — down from 1,323 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2007 as a sophomore.

Now he has one more year to prove himself to colleges and lead Desert Pines on a deep playoff run. It's a season Bennett has been waiting for. The coach remembers watching Leilua dominate the freshman football ranks as a baby-faced ninth-grader.

"We've been building since his freshman year for this," Bennett said.

The association's skills challenge was divided into training and competition for skilled position players, linebackers and linemen. It followed a combine on Friday where results like an athlete's 40-yard dash time will be made available to college coaches. The association also produces a DVD from the event for recruiters.

In years past, coaches attended the combine and skills event to conduct their own evaluations, but the NCAA prohibited that recruiting practice three years ago, said Darwin Rost, the association's president.

There weren't many top-tier recruits in attendance. Some had commitments to their school's track team while others who already have scholarship offers — like Bishop Gorman tight end and Southern California-commit Xavier Grimble — didn't need the exposure.

That gave others, like Leilua, the chance to be in the spotlight. Also, some used the event to shake off the rust as several schools have not started their involuntary spring workouts.

"This is still April. It's still early," Rost said. "A lot of the kids are going to grow over the summer."

Gorman's Alex Turner, who committed to Stanford two weeks ago, was the most notable athlete in attendance.

"I wanted to see what the competition would be like," Turner said. "There is always someone out there who is going to try to work harder than you."

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected].