Spring football game revived

For the first time this millennium, Hawaii will have a spring football game.

The Warriors will be drafted into two teams to play each other at the Ohana Football Festival closing spring practice April 26, coach Greg McMackin told the Star-Bulletin yesterday.

"We're still formulating, but we'll have a game where we keep score," McMackin said.

While a spring game isn't unusual for most college football teams, UH didn't have them under former coach June Jones, who left for SMU in January after nine seasons with the Warriors. Jones worried about teammates injuring each other.

McMackin said there will be safety precautions: There will be no special-teams plays and the top players won't be put in harm's way of full contact for more than a few plays, if any. Same for quarterbacks, McMackin said.

"The guys we already know about, we don't need to have them out there," he said. "We have a lot of younger guys we need to evaluate."

The teams in the spring game will be coached by Ron and Cal Lee, the UH offensive and defensive coordinators, McMackin said.

Cal Lee said he can't remember a previous time the brothers coached against each other. They were on the same high school staffs for decades at Kaiser and Saint Louis.

"We're going to have to have them wager a pizza or something," McMackin said.

"The draft should be a lot of fun."

Spring practice begins Monday. Twelve of the 15 sessions are at the UH grass practice field on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 7. Scrimmages are scheduled at UH for two Saturdays, April 12 and 19.

All practices, as well as the spring game/Ohana Football Festival (which includes autograph and photo opportunities as well as activities for children) are open to the public with free admission. Parking is free for the Aloha Stadium event.