Sidelines
Scattered notes
from a scattered mindTHE ballot is in my mailbox, the preseason WAC football poll.
My guess for Offensive Player of the Year? Brock Forsey of Boise State.
My bet for top player on defense? Travis Laboy of UH.
To win it all? The race looks tight, but Boise has the other three contenders -- Fresno, Hawaii and Louisiana Tech -- at home. (This is why they don't let me vote for anything important, like the Heisman or the Golden Globes.)
>> If Evan Dobelle is serious about his Global Vision of Athletics, then his clubhouse leader has to be Riley (Fresno State wouldn't return his phone calls because it didn't want an entire team of foreign players) Wallace.
>> Speaking of which, Scott Rigot leaving UH for Kentucky is a giant leap forward for Hawaii's image in the basketball world. But now we'll see if losing Rigot's international recruiting presence is a step backward for the Global Vision of Athletics.
>> I do not like the nickname these national people are giving Michelle Wie -- "the Big Wiesie." It makes it sound like she doesn't feel well. Or is married to George Jefferson. Or something.
>> How much would live pay-per-view of Hawaii football have to cost before people decided they would actually rather go to the game?
>> From our Title IX series came this priceless quote from Jackie Young: "When I went to UH, I tried to join the golf team, but they wouldn't tell me where the practices were."
>> Jai Cunningham of Channel 2 is the only local broadcaster I have heard say "former Rainbows" instead of trying to erase history with that ugly 'W' word. Give the man a raise!
>> The NFL wants to change the surface at Aloha Stadium because the players want to, we're told. And one of the all-stars who has been most vocal about the Aloha Stadium surface has been Junior Seau of the Chargers, who just happens to belong to the NFL Quarterback Club. Which just happens to be a financial investor in Fieldturf.
It doesn't necessarily mean anything. I just thought you should know.
>> A response to Sunday's column about small-kid football:
"I think every football player that has come out of Ka'u is a graduate of the 'sideline' games. In our days we made our football out of paper napkins stuffed into paper cups after paper cups. Somehow the teams would just form. I used to love seeing that paper-cup ball soar through the air. Back in the fall of '75 during a game in Pahala, we were playing an intense game on the sidelines. One time a play from the actual game broke through the crowded sidelines and right into our game. We just froze. It was Scott Makuakane and Robert Kaawa. They cleaned out this dude from Honokaa right into us. Funny, nobody was concerned if we got hurt. They all yelled at us to stop playing and watch the game. We did for a while, but soon after we were back playing again."
You just don't get that at Aloha Stadium, no matter what the surface.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com