FALL camp. It's football's answer to spring training. Fall camp marks
a new beginning
for UH fansIt's a time to get ready. A time of rebirth and great expectations. A time when optimism reigns supreme. After all, everybody's still unbeaten, untied and unscored upon.
Even the University of Hawaii.
The Rainbows begin preparation for the 1998 season in earnest tomorrow at Cooke Field as the veterans join the newcomers in the first of a number of grueling two-a-day sessions. The new recruits got a sneak preview yesterday.
Fall camp also is a time to look forward, not backward. Not that UH fans would want to. It has been several winters of discontent for them. You'd have to go back to 1992 for the last time the Rainbows had a winning season.
In particular, it has been a painful first two years for head coach Fred vonAppen, whose Rainbows were 2-10 in 1996 and 3-9 last year. VonAppen admits the progress has been glacial.
Not only the loss of 27 seniors, but the Rainbows' overall performance last year desperately called for a team transplant.
IT appears vonAppen and his staff have succeeded in doing that. Obviously, it's too early to tell how the newcomers will pan out. But on paper, there's no question this year's recruiting class is his best in three years.
What's noteworthy is that the two real needs -- the offensive line and defensive secondary -- were addressed in recruiting.
Three junior college transfers -- Dustin Owen (6-foot-2, 316 pounds), Douglas Gosling (6-4, 302) and Kynan Forney (6-4, 282) -- could well be starters on the offensive line by the time fall camp is over.
Among the first-year players to watch in the secondary are Phil Austin and Jimmy LeJay, according to vonAppen.
Of course, offense -- or the lack of it -- was a bane during vonAppen's first two seasons.
Two newcomers -- Tom Racius and Robert Grant -- might make an immediate impact and help take some of the load off all-everything Charles Tharp, who was the WAC Pacific Division Freshman of the Year last season.
Racius threw for 2,685 yards and 20 touchdowns for Los Angeles Valley College. Grant, a true freshman, ran for more than 1,000 yards at Skyline High in Oakland, Calif.
"Several of these guys could be playing for us right away," vonAppen said after greeting 24 recruits for their first workout yesterday.
While it might be unfair to expect too much too soon from the new Rainbows, there's a sense of urgency that they had better get combat-ready as quickly as possible.
The '98 Rainbows might be improved compared to last year's team. But so's the schedule, which vonAppen ranks as ambitious as anyone's.
HIS team will open the season Sept. 3 against Arizona in a homecoming game of sorts, considering that the Wildcats' head honcho is Dick Tomey, who coached the Rainbows for 10 years before going to Tucson.
Also, Tomey has several assistants with Hawaii ties, including Bob Wagner, another former UH head coach. Maybe they can paint the visiting locker room at Aloha Stadium pink in Wags' honor.
So we can call the season opener the Former Rainbow Coaches Kickoff Classic.
Then there's the final two games of the regular season -- against Northwestern and Michigan, making the Rainbows an honorary Big Ten team. In between, they face a tough WAC slate that includes BYU, Utah, New Mexico and San Diego State, all maybe for the last time.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, fall camp has just begun. It's the time for a lot of unabashed optimism for Rainbow football fans.
Best of all, the Rainbows are unbeaten, untied and unscored upon.