Hawaii Linebacker Josiah Kia Eyeing Notre Dame Return

During the 2021 recruiting class, Notre Dame dipped into its Hawaii pipeline and signed Honolulu (Hawaii) Punahou linebacker Kahanu Kia. After playing his freshman year with the Irish, Kia is now currently on a LDS mission in Raleigh, North Carolina and is set to return for the 2024 season.

Now flash forwarding to the 2025 recruiting class, Notre Dame is now recruiting Josiah Kia, Kahanu’s younger brother. The program is hoping to once again attract a talented player from Hawaii, a state that has given them standouts like Manti Te’o, Kona Schwenke, Robby Toma, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, Jordan Botelho and Marist Liufau.

Kia remains high on Notre Dame, a school that has valued him for a long time. He has multiple coaches from the Irish staff continue to check in with him consistently.

"Everything is going good right now,” Kia told Irish Breakdown. "Coach (Marty) Biagi stopped by my practice last week. That was great.

"I’ve been building great relationships with Coach (Max) Bullough and Coach (Al) Golden,” he continued. "They both check in on me regularly.”

Overall, recruiting has been blowing up for Kia. He has been hearing from a lot of different schools, all of which are trying to get him to campus for a visit. A trip back to South Bend is very much in the plans in the future.

"Recruiting is going well,” Kia explained. "I’ve been in great contact with coaches and plan to make some trips in the offseason. I should be in South Bend during the beginning of January. I will go on other visits but I am not yet completely sure which schools.”

What position Kia plays on the next level remains up in the air. He’s the type of athlete that could project in multiple positions. Regardless, Kia is open to doing whatever is best for the team.

"I’m not 100 percent sure yet,” Kia said about where he fits best. "I have been playing different positions in high school based on our scheme so it’s hard to say.

"However, I can play either so it isn’t something I’ve thought about very much,” Kia added. "I would prefer to play as an inside linebacker but I’ll do whatever I have to to get on the field.”

With his location, going on visits isn’t the easiest thing in the world so it’ll have to wait until after the season. Notre Dame being the only visit he knows for sure is obviously a great sign but for now, there is one priority, finishing up a tremendous 2023 season.

"The season is going great,” he said. "We got our conference championship against Saint Louis this week and it will punch our ticket to states so it’s definitely an exciting one.”

Kia has begun to put together a very impressive offer list. He has done especially well on the West Coast over the past year. Some of his notable offers include the Irish, USC, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Washington State, Arizona State, BYU, Arizona and Cal among others.

The 6-2, 190-pound linebacker put together an impressive sophomore season last year for Punahou. The Hawaii standout would collect 71 total tackles, 18 tackles for loss and eight sacks while making plays all over the field.

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