Sidelines
OF course Herman Frazier was ready for action on day one. You couldn't have held him back. He took this job in June, and then he had to go back to the mainland, pack up, and wait for his dream job to arrive. Of course he was champing at the bit, counting the days until he was finally the new athletic director at Hawaii. Wouldn't you be? It’s time for
adrenaline and dreamsOne-point five million? You call that a deficit? That's nothing!
(And best of all, they're not even trying to pin this one on him.)
We're all Fraziers at this time of year, fresh starts and high hopes and waiting for everything to begin. We're all a little eager. I know I am.
These issues are giving me issues. At last this long summer is over and it's time to get back to what we're really here for: the games, the practices, the music of the night. It's the time of year to talk to people who are so sure big things will happen. We get to be there when players break and bond, their excitement somehow shining through the exhaustion of the August heat.
(Speaking of which, how did this guy with the Kansas City Chiefs, John Tait, jam up one of the great traditions of August -- the training camp fight? Tait is sitting out with 17 stitches, a reminder to us all to never, ever, get into any kind of situation where we might get hit in the face with a football helmet. Normally, training camp fights are a positive thing. Coaches generally love them, and in full head-to-toe padding it's usually all but impossible to get hurt. It's a few seconds of scuffling, cursing, rolling around on the ground and then it's over and everyone feels better. That is the proper procedure. This was the poorest execution of a training-camp fight since the previous record, when my friend Andy took a swing at a running back in mid-tussle, missed, and punched the ground, breaking his thumb.)
UH volleyball fans are like kids waiting for Christmas. The Wahine are loaded (remember, "Slam Sisters" came from Grace Wen). Visions of glory days past are dancing in heads across the state.
Then there's UH football, coming off a 9-3 season, the final memory a dagger of a punt into the stands against BYU. Now there's a bowl game at stake and a game with Alabama on the horizon and expectations are through the roof.
This is the anticipation of August, and that's what August is for.
Sure, the departed Nick Rolovich and Ashley Lelie were Hawaii's most formidable duo since Checkers and Pogo Poge. Yes, three of UH's toughest and most crucial games -- BYU, Fresno State, Boise State -- are on the road.
But even that has an optimistic twist now that UH will fly to those games via charter.
(Have you ever flown charter? I never have. I imagine it to be a fantasy world where nobody runs over your foot with the drink cart.)
Of course Frazier couldn't wait for August to get here. Neither could you. Neither could I.
Enough of business talks and politics. It is almost time to write about adrenaline and dreams.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com