This was not your everyday practice. Informal workout
includes former starsStar-Bulletin staff
There were no coaches and shirts were optional.
Chad Owens showed up on a skateboard. And when he grew tired of running long pass patterns, he took a turn or two with the shotgun snap as the center.
You couldn't turn around without running into an old guy at yesterday's unofficial Hawaii football workout on the soccer grass field. They kept showing up, including Nick Rolovich, Robert Grant, Joe Correia, Craig Stutzmann and Hawaiian Islander Josh White.
Rolo dropped back barefoot.
"It's good to have him here," Owens said.
Jeff Rhode rushed the quarterback. And more importantly, he also played quarterback.
"It's like a pickup game," said UH cornerback Abraham Elimimian.
"We're just trying to stay loose," Owens said.
June Jones gave his team the week off, heading into next week's Hawaii Bowl practices, but asked it to continue its regular running and lifting routine, and to take the field a couple of times a week. Jones wanted Hawaii to keep its legs and its timing.
"It's easy to lose that with (the precision of) our offense," Elimimian said.
As he did during practice the week of the San Diego State game, Owens went full-speed without the use of a knee brace.
"Pau," he said of wearing the brace.
Though many of the former players eventually formed their own workout group, Rolovich and Grant were among those who lined up with the current team for head-to-head, 7-on-7 passing drills.
"They can tell you a lot of good information," Elimimian said.
Hawaii resumes its official practices on Tuesday in preparation for the Christmas Day bowl game.
But yesterday Elimimian enjoyed the freedom of these informal sessions: They get to take more chances, and they get to call their own plays.
Big things ahead?: This week Jones made some of his strongest comments to date on the development he expects from quarterback Tim Chang.
"What he'll do over the next two years is learn how to be a 45-touchdown-a-year passer and a 10-pick thrower," Jones predicted. "His touchdown to picks will really improve."
Chang is already Hawaii's career leader in several passing statistical categories, including interceptions, which have plagued him throughout his tenure at UH.
Jones said most of Chang's mistakes have been of the mental variety. "And he knows he's making them when he's doing them," Jones said. "It's not like he doesn't know that when he makes a mistake, 'I'm not supposed to do that.' He knows he's doing the wrong thing, but he's trying to make it a better play."
But to Jones, that's not necessarily a bad sign.
"And that's OK, too," Jones said. "(What) I'm really excited to see is that play he made to Britton (Komine) at the end of the (San Diego State) game where Britt made that great catch to set up the final touchdown. I wouldn't have thrown that ball. So sometimes you've got to have guts enough to do what he does. And he does."
Jones said all Chang has to do is know when to take those chances, and when it is better not to.
"And (if) he just learns to not do that, and we catch the football? He's a 70 percent passer, and his touchdown to picks are going to be 3 or 4 to 1," Jones said.
"And if that happens? We'll, score every time we've got the ball, basically."
UH Athletics
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LINCOLN, Neb. >> Hawaii may boast the highest attendance in the country and some of the most knowledgeable fans in volleyball, but Nebraska is no slouch either. ’Huskers happy to play
the role of hostBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comYou know you're in a volleyball town when the gas station at the edge of downtown Lincoln has a marquee that reads "Welcome NCAA Volleyball."
The Cornhuskers are hosting a regional for the third year in a row and hoping that the regional magic can continue. Nebraska has gone to the final four the last two seasons.
The Cornhuskers drew the second-best crowd in the nation this year and have support in some form everywhere. Even in Hawaii's hotel, three huge eye-catching "Go Big Red" banners dangle from the third-floor railing. A hotel associate said that the banners stay up all year.
It seems like the Huskers can't get enough of their own banners. Thirty-two of them hang in the drafty brick-layered Coliseum where a sold-out crowd is expected for today and tomorrow. The capacity of the gym is listed as 4,030, but in NU's last three home matches a few hundred more have somehow crammed in.
Feeling his age: Nebraska coach John Cook will match wits against a former player of his today. Miami coach Nicole Lantagne Welch played club ball for Cook in San Diego in 1986.
"I feel like I'm getting really old," Cook said. "Here I am coaching against one of my former club players with a second-year program in the sweet 16. She's done an amazing job. It will be an eerie experience in that regard."
Welch restarted Miami's program two years ago after a 19-year absence. The program was dropped in 1982. The 'Canes are making their first sweet-16 appearance in their first season of being eligible for postseason play.
Tug-of-War: Former Nebraska standout Fiona Nepo says she's not sure who she'd root for if tomorrow ends up being a Hawaii vs. Nebraska regional final.
"I feel so torn. I know Margaret (Vakasausau) and Lily (Kahumoku)," Nepo said. "But these are my girls and this is my school. I wouldn't have minded going back to Hawaii for the regional."
The University High product exchanged hugs and a kiss on the cheek with Vakasausau and Kahumoku as Hawaii left its practice yesterday and the Huskers arrived at theirs. Nepo returned to Lincoln in October to be a volunteer assistant coach for the Huskers and to train for a shot at making the cut for the U.S. national team.
The former All-American sent in her application for the national team's open tryouts held in conjunction with next week's final four. Regardless of tomorrow's outcome, Nepo will be in New Orleans trying to complete a dream that she's had since small-kid time.
UH Athletics
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DIVISION II
Last year when the Brigham Young-Hawaii basketball team scheduled 19 days between games, coach Ken Wagner said he would try not to do it again. Seasiders in for
another long waitBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comAnd he didn't exactly. He now faces 25 days between games.
"We'll be fine," Wagner said. "It will be good to have a break."
This time the gap was not any fault of Wagner's, as his annual Division I tournament was canceled last fall by the 2-in-4 rule, and two teams -- Pacific and Westmont -- pulled out of games. The Seasiders last played Dec. 7 and will not play their next game until Jan. 3 when they host St. Martin's.
There is a major difference between this time and last, as the Seasiders have only played six games this season, winning five of them. Last year the Seasiders took off after making it to the championship game of their tournament against Tulsa.
"This year I don't think we are playing as well as we did when it happened last year," Wagner said.
They lost three out of their first five games after the long time off.
If anyone could use a break, it's Hawaii-Hilo. The Vulcans just finished a stretch of seven games in 11 days. They won five of them in that span.
"Now that it's over with, I'm happy with it," Hilo coach Jeff Law said. "But it's something I wouldn't want to do again. We were lucky to survive mentally."
The Vulcans don't get the break that the Seasiders get, as they will head right into their ninth annual Coconut Coast Classic this weekend.
The Vulcans will play Mid-America Nazerene on Sunday and Ouachita Baptist on Monday. After that, they are off until playing in California on Dec. 28 and 29.
Local basketball teams usually take things light in December, they just don't usually take almost the entire month off.
Chaminade plays only four times the rest of the month. Hawaii Pacific has been off since Dec. 6, but will get back into it this week.
Hilo's game counts: Hawaii-Hilo's 73-60 loss to the University of Hawaii on Monday will count in the standings after all.
The Vulcans were 5-2 before the game, which they understood was an exhibition that would not count on their record.
The game was originally scheduled for Nov. 11, but was pushed back to accommodate UH coach Riley Wallace.
Little did the Vulcans know an NCAA Division II rule prohibits exhibition games after Nov. 22. They learned of the infraction the day of the game and decided to police themselves.
It hurts the Vulcans in more ways than counting wins and losses, since they are at their maximum of 27 games. They will have to change their Dec. 16 game against Mid-America Nazarene to a scrimmage, and will not charge admission.
Hilo sports information director Kelly Leong estimates that it will mean a loss of at least $1,000 to the program.
Athletic director Kathleen McNally said the mix-up came about because she was going by Division I rules.
Hawaii was not penalized because the rule only applies to Division II schools.
Women play ball, too: Even though none of Hawaii's Division II programs have women's basketball, the Coconut Classic will also feature a women's basketball tournament.
California (Pa.), Concordia (Wis.), Dakota Wesleyan, Lee (Tenn.), The Master's (Calif.) and Missouri Southern will participate.
The competition begins with Concordia and The Master's on Monday at 1 p.m. It wraps up with Dakota Wesleyan and California at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
