Sidelines
UH chancellor going
through training campPETER Englert is a nice man, a research scientist. A pleasant 52-year-old guy who is quick to smile and speaks with an accent that is reminiscent of his native Germany and the last several years spent at Victoria University in New Zealand.
He is the new chancellor at the University of Hawaii.
He is living in the dorms.
"I wanted to maintain clearly that I take the student matters seriously," he said.
He is living with the UH football team.
It was a surprise for him, too. For his first few weeks on the job, he has moved into student housing. Englert wanted to walk, talk, live, learn. He wanted to know what the UH experience felt like, he wanted to live how students lived, meet people, and see everything with his own eyes.
It was a great idea. It looked good. It felt good. Then someone asked him if he knew that 105 football players were about to be moving into the dorm with him.
"Oh," he said, "that's nice."
Nice! Yes, that's how nice this guy is. You tell him he's going to be sharing space with 105 college kids in the midst of a two-week boot camp, and he's pleasantly surprised.
He is living, during this hot August swing of double-day practices and nonstop meetings known as fall camp, with the Hawaii football team. And he loves it.
"That the football students would be in the same room as I would be, I didn't know," he said. "It's just a very nice thing."
He is on the eighth floor and the whole wing is filled with football players. So he meets them, and they talk. Englert, the former triathlete, is learning about football. About Hawaii. About his students. About college life.
He didn't bring his music with him, so he is "vicariously listening" to the youthful tunes that fill the hall.
He leaves early. They practice, he works. There are lots of things to be busy with. But as the day closes, in the rare relaxing hours, he gets a glimpse few people outside of football ever get to see.
"When I come back at night I see them at the cafeteria when they eat," he said. "First of all, you notice who the football players are. The two of us, you know, they're all much taller."
Yes, I know. That's why I like interviewing Chad Owens.
"And secondly, you notice they have very healthy appetites. And they're really, very, very, very, very, very nice people. I meet them in the elevator. I meet them in front of their rooms when they are waiting, when they are sitting out after hours there. And so I run into them and say hi and they talk to me."
On Sunday he stopped by practice to watch his new friends go through conditioning testing. Some made the grade. Others didn't. He felt it with them. Englert offered congratulations and condolences both.
But that's nothing, not yet. The days and weeks will drag on, and soon the guys will, too. Exhaustion will set in, fatigue and injury, determination, weakness.
Englert will get to know more of them then, and will probably understand athletes in a way that few college administrators do.
"It's really not easy to be a student-athlete," Englert said. "They need our special attention. They get it, as well."
It wasn't his exact plan, but this unexpected bonus was just the type of insight he was looking for when he moved in.
The scientist is happy, living with the team. This is going to be great. It already is. He is going through training camp with 105 college football players and he doesn't even have to run sprints.
Nice, indeed. For this, and so many other reasons, the new chancellor is feeling good about the experience. He said it best: "I have a full house."
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com