COURTESY NMSU Defensive end David Niumatalolo, a Kahuku graduate, said it was disappointing that the University of Hawaii didn't heavily recruit him but "has no regrets."

Aggies show some aloha

New Mexico State has lured 11 players away from Hawaii to its football team

Before you ask Mike Fanoga how he got a bunch of guys from Hawaii to come to New Mexico State, there's a question even more pressing:

What in the world is a guy who played at UTEP doing coaching the rival Aggies?

Fanoga chuckles.

"A lot of reasons," the NMSU defensive line coach says, and then repeats. "A lot of reasons."

The most obvious is head coach Hal Mumme. Fanoga worked with Mumme previously at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State and Kentucky.

They first met when Mumme recruited Fanoga from Snow College in 1984 to play linebacker at UTEP.

Now Fanoga is doing the recruiting. The 47-year-old native of American Samoa is the biggest reason the Aggies could start a pipeline from Hawaii to Las Cruces, N.M.

How do they deal with the desert and no beach?

"It's not really a problem," sophomore defensive end David Niumatalolo said. "We can always go to the pool. It's all right, because there are a lot of us."

There are 11 players -- all underclassmen -- on the current NMSU roster who list Hawaii as their home state. One other from the islands, Max Fairclough, is expected to join the program after graduating from Arizona Western.

"I'm sure this game will be very special for them," Mumme said.

Few were recruited by Hawaii, and if so, only lightly.

"It was disappointing, but I have no regrets," Niumatalolo said.

Three Hawaii products are on the Aggies' (2-4, 0-2 WAC) two-deep chart heading into tomorrow's game against the Warriors (4-2, 2-1).

COURTESY NMSU La'auli Fonoti was New Mexico State's starting outside linebacker until he was sidelined last week with a compound fracture in his finger.

"It's something I've always wanted to do, since Kahuku is mostly running, sometimes just 2 or 3 yards at a time," Heimuli said. "Here we're all the way up and down the field."

Freshman Kawika Shook (Kamehameha) and Niumatalolo (Kahuku) are listed as No. 2 at left and right defensive end.

"Coach Fanoga does a good job of recruiting our islands," said Niumatalolo, the nephew of former UH quarterback and assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo. "I like it here. I think our program's moving up. It was a little rough going through the 0-12 season (last year), but from the offseason we could tell we would move up."

Sophomore La'auli Fonoti (Kahuku) began the season as a starting outside linebacker, but a compound fracture to one of his fingers kept him out of last week's game against Boise State and will prevent him from playing tomorrow.

Fonoti had 16 tackles in five games prior to the injury. Niumatalolo has been in on 15 stops, including three for loss. Fonoti is the brother of NFL guard Toniu (Kahuku) and former Stanford linebacker Taualai (Saint Louis).

Shook has played in just one game, with two tackles.

"Kawika is coming on," Fanoga said. "I expect he'll be in for 10 to 15 plays on Saturday."

Defensive lineman Ray Manumaleuna (Kahuku) has played sparingly, but is tied for the team lead with two sacks.

Nearly the entire island contingent attended the NMSU volleyball team's historic victory over UH that ended UH's 114-match WAC winning streak Oct. 13.

Sophomore linebacker Ka'ua Adolpho (Kahuku) brought a large Hawaiian flag.

"It was, I don't know, hard to explain the feeling," Heimuli said. "We were just cheering all the plays, the good plays for both teams. Growing up in Hawaii you always support Hawaii teams. But now we're here at New Mexico State, we're Aggies."

Fanoga -- the former Miner who now coaches the rival Aggies -- could relate to the mixed emotions.

"It was even that way for my wife (Soana, a Campbell High graduate) at the volleyball game," Fanoga said. "It was a win-win situation for them. But I think they were all happy the Aggies won."

And they'll be going for two in a row over UH tomorrow.

"We all see each other a lot when we're home on vacation and we will in the future," Niumatalolo said. "So we definitely want to give them a good game, or better yet beat them."