HONOLULU – As the sunrise fully cleared the ridge and dorms above Cooke Practice Field early Thursday morning, the University of Hawai'i football team was already tearing into its first grind of the season. The first of 26 workouts over the next five weeks, the Rainbow Warriors arrived with a workman's attitude to open 2017 Fall Camp.
There were a lot of possible distractions at hand. The Warrior had an expansive off-season due to one of the earliest Spring Football sessions in the nation. UH also enters this season coming off a bowl win – the first since 2006. Not to mention there was a first-ever second-place projection in the preseason Mountain West standings. However, none of those factored into the focus the Rainbow Warriors showed on the first day.
"Doing Spring Ball early, I think they were hungry," second-year head coach
Nick Rolovich noted. "They've got more to prove."
Big plays happened on both sides of the ball and the coaches from both units got after their players during the instruction-heavy opening day of camp. Rolovich praised the returning players for their devoted hard work over the offseason, but also credited the newcomers' mature approach for the success of opening day.
"This is bigger than them, and I think they know that," Rolovich said.
In addition to the turnaround season, the second-place MW preseason nod and Rolovich's decision to take on the Mountain West Media Summit with an Elvis impersonator as a special guest, Hawai'i football is creating a national buzz. Rolovich opened the camp with a live radio interview on the Jim Rome Show just before the first horn.
Rolovich donned a shepherd's crook for the first day of practice, inspired by its symbolism in leadership after reading The Way of the Shepherd – a gift from athletic director David Matlin to the staff in the offseason. The accessory proved unnecessary, as Rolovich later commended the leadership the players brought to the field today.
"They're so much further along in what we teach, this year than last year," Rolovich said. "It was a fun day to be out here with these guys."
The Rainbow Warrior fall camp will continue on Friday and Saturday with 6:30 a.m. sessions on the grass at Cooke Practice Field, with Sunday off. Hawai'i opens the 2017 season on August 26 in Amherst, Mass., taking on Massachusetts.
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