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Rainbows keep
best prep football
talent in the isles
Fourteen locals, including
Rainbow recruits
the top prospects, may sign
letters today to play at UH
All-state football team By Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinJune Jones was so confident his 25 recruits would sign on the dotted line today, the University of Hawaii head football coach spent yesterday afternoon playing a round of golf.
"It was good to get away from everything," Jones said this morning. "This has been a very hectic two months for our coaches and staff. It's hard to say how well we recruited. We probably won't know for sure until two or three years from now."
One thing Jones did well was re-establish the Hawaii program as a viable alternative for local players. During the waning seasons of former coach Bob Wagner and throughout the tumultuous three-year stint of Fred vonAppen, local prep stars chose to go elsewhere.
That appears to have changed this season, however. The Rainbows expect to sign 14 prep players with local ties before the day is done, including marquee stars Timmy Chang and Gerald Welch of St. Louis School, Uriah Moenoa of Iolani School, Orlando Wong of Kahuku High and Houston Ala of Kamehameha Schools.
Chang is not only rated the top quarterback in the state, but is ranked No. 21 nationwide by Rivals.com. He threw 64 touchdown passes in 15 games this season, one shy of the national record, and led the Crusaders to their first official state championship last fall.
His favorite receiver was Welch. At 5-foot-9, the St. Louis wideout isn't a large target, but he still caught 115 passes for 1,446 yards and 27 touchdowns this season.
Moenoa was rated the top offensive lineman in the state and is considered the 50th-best prospect nationwide at his position by Rivals.com. Early on, he was leaning toward Colorado, but changed his mind after a recruiting visit with Jones convinced him Hawaii was the place to be.
And it doesn't end there. Granted, it wasn't a great year for defensive players locally, but Jones landed the best one in Ala. The ILH defensive player of the year is considered to be among the state's top prospects.
Ala played every defensive line position, but it's likely the 6-2, 210-pounder will be shifted to linebacker next fall. At 4.8 in the 40, his speed is adequate.
Unlike last year when UH landed linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa out of San Diego, the Rainbows don't have a top 100 national prospect in this class, but Jones is happy with it nonetheless.
"We feel like we answered some of our needs," Jones said. "We wanted to get high school and junior college quarterbacks into our system. We needed to shore up our offensive line. And we wanted to add depth on the defensive side of the football."
Jones also wanted to keep more of the local players at home, a promise he made 13 months ago after being named the Rainbows' head coach. This isn't the strongest local recruiting class in recent years, but Jones has made some serious inroads to local prep powers St. Louis and Kahuku.
Prior to Jones' arrival, players with the abilities of Chang and Wong often fled to Utah and Brigham Young or to Pac-10 programs such as Washington, Washington State or California.
This year, Utah still landed three quality local recruits _ Kahuku products Kala Latuselu and Fakaloloma Olevao, and St. Louis offensive lineman Iosefa Robins -- but the numbers were down from recent seasons.
"We aren't going to get every local player we go after every year," Jones said. "But we want them to consider us and know we are looking to build a strong foundation here with local players."
University of Hawaii football team's verbal commitments: Rainbow recruits
*denotes letter of intent signed
Name Pos. School Ht. Wt. Houston Ala LB Kamehameha 6-1 215 Isaiah Alameda LB Kamehameha 6-1 215 Justin Ayat PK Kamehameha 5-11 195 * Tim Chang QB St. Louis 6-2 185 Jonathan Ekno OL Servite, Anaheim, Calif. 6-6 280 Abraham Elimimian DB Crenshaw, Los Angeles 5-10 180 Jared Flint QB Orange Coast CC 6-6 210 Tyson Hampton CB Florin H.S., Sacramento, Calif. 6-0 182 Watson Hoohuli LB Kamehameha 6-0 215 * William Jackson OL Cass Tech, Detroit 6-3 280 * Chad Kahale OL St. Louis 6-3 300 Chad Kapanui QB/DB Roosevelt 6-0 207 * Phil Kauffman OL St. Louis 6-1 275 Greg Kleidon P Santa Monica JC 6-1 190 Matt Manuma QB Radford 6-1 195 Kelvin Millhouse DB Mount San Antonio College 6-1 190 * Uriah Moenoa OL Iolani 6-3 330 Leonard Peters DB Kahuku 6-1 175 Nick Rolovich QB City College of San Francisco 6-2 210 Ryan Santos OL Mililani 6-5 292 * Gerald Welch WR St. Louis 5-9 180 * Ken Witherspoon QB/LB Cass Tech, Detroit 6-2 227 Orlando Wong WR Kahuku 6-0 180
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
