With national letter-of-intent day tomorrow, I have just one favor to ask of the participants: Please, please, this ain't hockey — scrap the hat trick.

High school seniors choosing from among a collection of caps has become a tired cliche and just the latest element of fabricated newsmaking to hit recruiting.

I found it a bit ostentatious when Manti Te'o played three-cap monte last year before he donned the Notre Dame lid and signed with the Fighting Irish ... and he was the most celebrated prep prospect to ever come out of these islands.

If you want to keep the suspense going, just bring the one cap, and hide it until your name's announced.

This is a fine class of football-playing high school seniors, but no one stands out far enough from the rest to justify such a display of look-at-me. It would be an insult to the rest of the players. Save the drama for Saturdays in the fall.

» We won't know how the University of Hawaii's class shapes up until the pens hit paper tomorrow ... and maybe not even then. Beau Yap is a huge late catch, but one thing you learn early on is if a guy changes his commitment once, you can't be surprised if he does again (Exhibit A: Jeremy Perry). I guarantee you Baylor hasn't given up.

Another defensive lineman, Lawrence Lagafuaina, was on the waver wire over the weekend, trying to choose between UH and Washington. The latest report yesterday had him headed to the Huskies.

Kona Schwenke? We hear he's joining Te'o at Notre Dame, and that he canceled a stop at U-Dub on the way home from visiting South Bend over the weekend.

» Can I get a word in, wedge-wise?

PGA Tour golfer Scott McCarron provided his opinion on that groovy topic, and is still applying burn ointment to his okole days later.

McCarron's mistake was saying “;it's cheating”; in reference to Phil Mickelson's use of the controversial Ping-Eye 2 wedge, which is legally fine but ethically questionable. If you accuse a golfer of cheating, you'd better be right ... all the way right, and McCarron isn't according to the written rules.

As for those unwritten, McCarron uses the ridiculously long putter for better balance — which purists think violates the spirit of the game.

» No way exists to make the Pro Bowl relevant to fans who don't care for a watered-down version of a real game.

So give the players what they want and bring it back here and leave it here. A postseason (and by postseason we mean after the Super Bowl) trip to Hawaii is meaningful to most of them.

» The Pearl Open, the state's most international golf tournament, often butts heads with the Pro Bowl for attention, so it will get more coverage than usual next week.

There's no Tadd Fujikawa this year, but don't be surprised if Dean Wilson enters. Hawaii's biggest PGA Tour moneymaker hopes to get in at Pebble Beach, but if he doesn't ...

» It's early, but the partnership that birthed the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and Diamond Head Classic could spawn early-season college volleyball and baseball tournaments hosted by UH and shown on ESPN.

» Burn after reading: Colts 28, Saints 24. Gotta love Drew Brees and the Saints' story, but it's Peyton over Payton.

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Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.