Friday, July 17, 1998

UH tight end
Ah Quin out for
the season

Transfer QB Fred Salanoa
also won't play for Hawaii
this year

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

Senior tight end Zeff Ah Quin and fellow local product Fred Salanoa won't play for the University of Hawaii football team this fall.

Rainbows head coach Fred vonAppen confirmed yesterday that Ah Quin suffered a knee injury last week and is lost for the upcoming season.

"He tore his anterior cruciate ligament running out on the grass and will be lost to us for seven months," vonAppen said.

Wide receiver Jason Mane suffered a similar injury at last year's fall camp. He was unable to play his senior year. Mane requested a sixth season from the Western Athletic Conference, but was turned down last spring. Linebacker Mark Jenkins also was denied a sixth season. He lost his appeal last month.

"I knew it would be tough for those guys to be awarded a sixth season," vonAppen said. "But you can always hope. Losing Zeff really hurts us because we don't have much experience at tight end."

The news was equally bad for Salanoa, who recently was ruled academically ineligible. The former Radford High quarterback from Snow (Utah) Junior College signed a national letter of intent this past spring.

The 1996 Radford graduate played one year for Snow Junior College. He completed 240 of 403 passes for 3,398 yards and 38 touchdowns. He led all junior college quarterbacks in passing yards.

"I don't want to make that big of a deal of it because he never really was with us," vonAppen said. "He came to us last spring and said he wanted to be a Rainbow."

Salanoa attended the first spring practice, but at the time confirmed he had a lot of classroom work to complete in order to be academically eligible.

"Now he's going back to Snow this fall where he can hopefully earn enough credits to be eligible next year," vonAppen said of Salanoa, who also was recruited by Nevada-Las Vegas and Washington State. "All we can do is wait and see."

The Rainbows also learned that senior cornerback Robbie Robinson wasn't able to earn a fifth year of eligibility and that junior college running back Eric Shine will have to sit a year while he gets his grades in shape.