Helmets, facemasks, padding and coordinated movements can make football players seem like robots with no personality. Former Rainbows
find a new arenaHuggins, Weaver and Roe "stumble"
onto the Islanders rosterBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comThat's not the case with three former University of Hawaii players who were signed by the new Hawaiian Islanders arenafootball2 league team.
They've got funny, embarrassing stories to tell.
Take kicker Jake Huggins. One time in high school, while warming up in front of teammates, coaches and homecoming fans, he went to kick the ball -- and missed it completely.
"I fell right on my butt, and everybody was laughing," Huggins said. "So while I was down, I figured I might as well just pretend I meant to go down and do some stretching."
Then there's fullback/linebacker Avion Weaver, whose memorable funny moments have to do with "The Sniper" and a famous basketball player.
"When you're practicing or just walking on turf, sometimes you don't get your foot high enough and you trip and your body jerks you forward," Weaver said. "It happens to everybody -- coaches, trainers, players, and everybody's laughing and we all shout 'Sniper' or 'Turf Monster' or we try to look away and talk about 'em and laugh later.
"When it happens to me, since I'm falling forward, I just pretend that I'm doing a running jump shot like Larry Bird in 1982."
Lineman Morrie Roe can laugh about one of his more memorable football incidents now, but it wasn't so funny at the time.
While playing for the Hawaii Hammerheads during the 1999 Indoor Professional Football League championship season, Roe was thrown out of a game for ... you figure it out ... being too rough.
"They ejected me from the game for hitting the kicker too hard," Roe said. "I hit him into the wall and he was down and hurt bad, and they ended up throwing me out, but it was a legal hit."
Huggins, Weaver and Roe are fired up about the Islanders' upcoming season.
"I'm looking forward to the traveling and the brotherhood again," said Huggins, whose career highlight was kicking in the 1999 Oahu Bowl victory over Oregon State.
The Iolani graduate has only kicked indoors once, and that was at a Rice University practice facility.
"I'll be practicing some stuff I've never practiced before," Huggins said. "I've heard that on onside kicks, you can bounce it off the boards.
"It's a fast-paced game and on fourth down, you're either going for it or kicking a field goal, and pretty much you're always in field-goal range, so that's pretty good."
The 5-foot-9, 175-pound Huggins, who made four tackles during his senior year at UH, is looking forward to the physical aspects of the game.
"I want to hit," he said. "I can't wait for the season to start just so I can get down there and hit somebody."
Not your usual kicker talk.
The 5-10, 225-pound Weaver, an integral part of the Rainbows' 1999 success, has learned a thing or two since his last game for UH in 2000.
And he's had plenty of time to mull it all over while letting a severe knee injury heal.
"I had surgery the day after Thanksgiving in 2000 and I didn't start playing basketball and lifting until about six months ago," the 1999 Oahu Bowl MVP said. "I knew it was going to take a long time, but I didn't want to come back too early. So I focused my mind on the kinds of things I want to do (on the field), to think more and understand the game more."
Weaver missed much of his senior season because of the injury.
"I didn't get to finish on my terms. I was just beginning to understand a bunch of stuff and putting it to use in the game before the injury."
Weaver, who loves to punish defenders in his path, learned to make moves, little moves, to create an arm tackle instead of a wrap.
"Arena ball has a smaller field, but it's going to make me do the little pitter-patter steps," he said.
Weaver has been hanging with Islanders quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, the former St. Louis School and Utah standout, as much as possible.
"I never got to see him play because he went to Utah and he was injured when we played them," Weaver said. "He can play and he's showing himself as a leader and a guy with a lot of athleticism who can move.
"It's going to be high-scoring and wide open. If you get up to go to the bathroom or to get something to eat, you're going to miss two TDs, if not three."
The 6-2, 285-pound Roe was part of the Hammerheads' championship team, and that experience has been the ultimate high of his football career so far.
"Our (Islanders) talent level is a lot better, and I look forward to going far in this league, at least the playoffs," he said. "I've watched tapes of the Arena Football League (the league one step up from af2), and from what I can tell, the talent level is not all that different. It's all about being in the right place at the right time and getting the coaches' attention."
Roe likes the smaller field.
"As a big guy, you don't have to run as far," he said. "I like the contact, there's nowhere to run, every play you're going to be hitting somebody."
Roe is impressed with the Islanders' organization so far.
"It's first-class the way they're running the team, treating the players and getting our names and faces out to the public," he said.
It's a public that now knows these three guys like to hit, including two who invent unique ways to avoid being mocked when they stumble.
Hawaiian Islanders