Colt Brennan also will sign autographs Sunday at the Barefoot League shop in Kapahulu (next to Safeway).
He will sign only specially made shirts ($25-$40) from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The shirts, limited to two per customer, will be sold beginning at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. For details, call 734-0200.

It was previously announced that Brennan will sign autographs tomorrow at the Picture Plus store in the Pearl Highland shopping center. That session will run from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. To purchase a ticket for the autograph session, go to:

http://www.picturesplus.net/detail_image.asp?imageid=Blank_P&ID=192#

* * *

Senior slotback Aaron Bain is the rare player who does not have a tattoo. He mused that as a walk-on, he couldn’t afford one. Bain, who is scheduled to receive a football scholarship next month, has worked this summer as a counselor at a youth detention center in Makiki.

* * *

Slotback Kealoha Pilares, who is on scholarship, has a lot of ink.

* * *

Leon Wright-Jackson, who went home to Seattle for a few days, is back and working out daily. Wright-Jackson and Daniel Libre enter training camp as the co-No. 1 running backs.

To help prepare for the season, Wright-Jackson bought a pair of Under Armour cleats. UA is UH’s sponsor this year. The players won’t receive their UA cleats until training camp.

Kealoha Pilares, however, said he feels comfortable with his Nike shoes.

* * *

Jake Heun is expected to serve as a powerback in short-yardage situations. Heun was a skilled linebacker in JC — the “dark side,” he calls the defense — but he appears set to play offense this season.

* * *

Ray Hisatake is competing for the left tackle’s job and the title of Biggest Hair.

Right wideout Royce Pollard also has impressive hair.

It’s too bad the New York Jets released Kenny Patton, who is a talented and athletic cornerback. But UH fans can meet with Patton this weekend. Patton and Leonard Peters, now with the Chicago Bears, will be guest instructors at the Hawai‘i Speed and Quickness clinic Saturday in Klum Gym. The session runs from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. For details, go to hawaiispeedandquickness.com

* * *

Tight end Jeremy Stevens of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers worked out at UH’s grass practice field today. Stevens and UH defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe are good friends. Because it was an unsupervised workout, Malloe dropped off Stevens but wasn’t allowed to stay.

* * *

Ryan Henry has made a strong first impression, displaying quickness and sure hands during yesterday’s unsupervised workouts. Henry, a junior-college transfer, is competing at slotback. During workouts, he joins two other transfers — Mike Tinoco and Craig Bell. A fourth transfer, Jovonte Taylor, reports to training camp next month.

* * *

Leadership has many definitions. Adam Leonard, a senior, shows his leadership by bringing the water. No wonder so many players respect him.

* * *

Quarterback Greg Alexander is fitting in, participating in yesterday’s drills in bare feet. I’m not sure what Inoke Funaki is doing in the background.

* * *

Kawika Fuga, a former Leilehua High middle linebacker, has been working out with the fellas. This is a pretty good T-shirt:

* * *

Know that little voice in the back of your head? For those who cover UH football, that voice belonged to Dara Young, who was a member of the stat crew. Her knowledge of football is vast, her commitment deep. She once got married in the morning, then kept stats that night. Here’s Dara:

Football is like air to me – which is why I suffocate between February and August. My wonderful father, bless his heart, probably thought his eldest was going to be a boy. But, he still watched sports in my presence, and I asked him a million questions about sports. As a 4-year-old, my favorite players were Alex Kaloi and (gasp!) O.J. Simpson! I LOVED Joe Moore as the KGMB sports anchor, and even asked for Joe’s autographed photo for my 5^th birthday. I got my wish, by the way.

Remember those Troll Book orders in elementary school? Well, I ordered all the sports ones: “Ten Great NFL Quarterbacks,” and the list goes on. Dan Fouts, Ken Stabler, Tony Dorsett, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris….they were all in the books I ordered. Then when I was 8, I got another gridiron thrill: my dad took me to the first NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii!

As an Eastside rat who went to Kaiser, Scott Chan was my P.E. and health teacher. I had heard he was a pretty darn good player in the 1970s; he was a great teacher too. I dragged my girlfriend (a football hater) to the Kaiser games…then when we moved on to UH-Manoa, I somehow persuaded her to buy Super Rooter tickets with me. She was a quite a trooper and even stood in the rain with me and watched Jason Elam and the Rainbows beat Iowa!!! Think the rain did her in, because after that, I was on my own with UH football.

I got lucky and ended up working part-time in the UH Athletic Department first at the business office, then at the SID Office with Eddie Inouye, Thomas Yoshida, Lois Manin and Markus Owens. Great, great people – and UH still has fabulous people in that Athletic Department. I was a shy, quiet student who tried to soak up all I could under the “seasoned” students: The Advertiser’s own Dayton Morinaga and Henry Yamamoto, who served as the Wahine Volleyball P.A. during the Klum Days. After that, I became a UH Athletic Department barnacle – they just couldn’t get rid of me.

In between my job at the best hotel in Hawaii, I get to enjoy each UH home football game in person – sitting right behind Mr. Tsai, our beloved blog host. I’m lucky to be part of a great stats team who’s seen the lows and the highs. One of the most memorable games has to be the UH double overtime win over Fresno State in 1999…what a thriller!

And then there was 2007. What a season, what a finish. I just had to be there to join the Hawaii contingent in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl because it was one of the few opportunities I had to scream my head off (can’t do that during the games in the press box) for the Warriors. Following the Sugar Bowl and the administrative changes, I decided it was time to step it up and really put my money by my mouth and support the program. On the day that Coach Mack was named head coach, I sat there watching the press conference putting down my deposit for 2 season tickets. Although I won’t be sitting in those seats, I’ll still be screaming loudly…to myself.

I will now go back to lurking…GO WARRIORS

Here’s Dara as the Warrior:

And here’s what our shy Dara sounds like during a football game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btsJEjzVjBc

Colt Brennan will be featured in an autograph session Saturday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at Pictures Plus in the Pearl Highlands shopping center. Brennan arrives in town that day, and departs Sunday  for Denver, where he will undergo a follow-up exam with his hip specialist.

To purchase a ticket for the autograph session, go to:

http://www.picturesplus.net/detail_image.asp?imageid=Blank_P&ID=192#

* * *

Don’t think the offseason belongs only to the football players.
The Rainbow Wahine volleyball, soccer and softball players have been lifting and running and lifting some more.
Yesterday, Chelsea Deptula kicked okole in dodgeball, blasting away at some of the football players.
Here’s a picture of volleyball players Jessica Keele and Dani Mafua:

* * *

And here’s one of my favorite coaches, softball’s Dee Wisneski:

* * *

Of all of the athletic department administrators, associate AD Marilyn Moniz-Kaho‘ohanohano is one of the lowest paid. Jim Donovan said one of his priorities is to give her a well-deserved pay increase.

* * *

According to UH folks, conditioning coach Mel deLaura is in Oregon tending to a family matter. He returns to Hawai‘i on Monday.

* * *

Some blogs are fortunate to have one charismatic and energetic poster. We’re blessed to have “the twins.” A few weeks ago, we printed the bio of Midor7. Now meet her technological sister. Who knew the woman who entertained us with “Funky Cold Medina” at K-Calls was a finalist in the Brown Bags to Stardom competition? Meet UHFan808:

In the wee hours one September morning, I was born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. My dad, a civilian machinist, worked the night shift fixing submarines at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. My mother, a homemaker and mother of three, loved to sew, garden, bake, and cook.

Both parents were “known” for their creative home projects. My mother grew beds of brilliantly colored flowers, the brighter the better. Everything in the yard had a purpose, whether for food or for decoration. Even the kitchen waste had its own composting hole in the garden. They were interesting people whose projects were so different that each was a featured in an article. My mother’s strawberry guava hedge doubled as an edible fence and my father’s life hobby was to build our house from metal, concrete, and glass.

Their other “project” was raising me.

When I turned three, my parents took me to swimming classes at the Richard Street YWCA. I was told I kicked and screamed bloody murder when introduced to the male teachers but finally calmed down when I met the nice woman teacher named Wendy. She was my teacher every Saturday until about fourth grade. Today — ahem, ahem — “Breaststroke” is still my favorite stroke.

For a short period, I hung out with a neighborhood gang of four girls and four boys. Sometimes we made dirt coffee, played house, or ran just around the neighborhood. We played chase-master, hide and go seek, sham battle, basketball, jacks, Chinese jump rope, jump rope, paddle tennis, and patty cakes, but most times we were climbing trees, riding our bikes, walking the streambed over rocks and boulders, fishing with scoop nets, and raising fish in tanks. Swordtails were my favorite but mom got those from the store. At the stream we would catch Indian tail guppies, baby Tilapia, jumping Opai, and dirt-brown and bright-red baby crayfish. I never fell into the stream except for the time we found a wooden box and it sunk in the middle of the stream.

I still remember playing on the grass fronting our house singing along to songs playing on the radio sometimes making up my own words while mother hung the laundry. Later they sent me to learn to sing and play the piano. I also learned to play the recorder and kazoo. Later on I took lessons from an instructor who earned his degree at Julliard.

On Sundays, we watched The Lawrence Welk variety show. It was a comedy, dance, skits, singing, and talk show. Bobby and Suzie were my favorite dance couple. My mom was a talented seamstress and I wanted to sew just like her. I always vowed to make the prettiest dress on the show using her sewing scraps.

When I was five, my dad took me to the elementary school after hours and we stopped to watch some boys practicing karate. I thought they were having fun so I asked to join them. By 12, I earned my second Dan (sp?) red belt. My favorite things were to avoid being tripped while sparring and “throwing” the opponent to the ground.

I also attended classes in Tahitian dance, ukulele, sewing, Chinese language, drawing & painting, arts & crafts, clay work, ballet, gymnastics, and cooking.

In my elementary and intermediate school years, we’d take family trips to the Rose Bowl to watch UCLA vs. USC football games. I remember going to watch the floats in the Rose Bowl Parade and sitting on the concrete stadium seats. Once we stopped to watch a Santa Anita race and I took a picture with the winning horse. The trips were similar every year, a combination of Las Vegas or Reno, and Chinatown L.A. No matter what, it always included a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim.

Attended Hokulani Elementary, Washington Intermediate, McKinley High School, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Hokulani Elementary School was like a private school with UH professor’s children going there. In the fifth grade, we were assigned an instrument. I wanted to play the flute but couldn’t make a sound so I got the Clarinet instead. From then on I went on many band trips mostly to the neighbor islands. Sometimes the boys would mix their leftover food with their milk and the resulting mixture would make me gag.

Somewhere going through intermediate school, I learned to speak Pidgin English. Parents said I was becoming too much of a tomboy and sent me to John Robert Powers modeling school. I was supposed to learn how to act like a girl. Continued with band and participated in science fairs. My favorite English teacher was Mrs. Tamanaha. Boy, she was the toughest and strictest and nicest teacher I ever had.

My parents and brother graduated from McKinley High and I wanted to continue the tradition. Continued with band and science fairs. Learned to speak Japanese from band friends. One year the band took a trip to Japan and China. As ambassadors from Hawaii, we performed Polynesian dances. I did the hula while wearing a muu muu and the Maori poi balls performance dressed in a sleeveless blouse and grass skirt. Our movements and garments were unusual and generated snickers and laughter from the audience. For the first time I was now in a band that played during football games. In my senior year, we started a marching band and a group of us gave up our instruments and marched as flag girls. Another group of friends and I entered the Brown Bags to Stardom talent competition. We won and entered the state competition. We took second place overall and first place in the music competition.

The yearly trips I had with my family convinced me that I would not appreciate going away for college. I loved it in Hawaii too much and could never consider being away from home. You can take the girl out of the islands but you can’t take the islands out of the girl. Guess I’m just an Island Girl. So I attended UH, played the clarinet during concert band, volleyball, and basketball games and marched with the band as a flag girl. Was fortunate to have attended all the football games and travel a few times to the Mainland to cheer for the basketball team. What’s funny is I would pay attention more to my friends than to the games.

Two weeks out of college, I got my first full time job in a lab analyzing wastewater. In elementary school, you would never imagine I’d get a job working anywhere near that kind of stench. Now I found it very interesting and rewarding!

Throughout my life I was always exposed to football. That changed in high school when I became more interested in watching men’s and women’s volleyball and baseball. Shortly thereafter, baseball became my favorite sport to watch. I enjoyed the Todd Takayoshi, John Matias, Randy Oyama and Markus Owens years. After school I began to watch football again. I loved it but didn’t know it. It took a few years of not watching or going to any games that I suddenly discovered I could not live another season without it. Since 2006, I’ve either gone to every game or watched the away games on the telly.

It was during last year’s UH football 2007 season that I discovered the Warrior Beat Blog. After the LaTech game, I began hearing news about their fans complaining about the Haka. I searched the internet and found the LaTech blog site. It was true! They just did not understand it was not meant to be a violent representation. Most of them were reasonable but were always extremely defensive at first.

Soon I discovered Tombo Ahi’s site. It was chock full of condensed and concise information about my beloved Warrior football team. I decided to post on his blog about the LaTech bloggers. It was my first time posting. He warmly welcomed me and congratulated for stepping over the lurker line. If I wanted to interact with other Warrior fans, he suggested I visit Stephen Tsai’s Warrior Beat Blog.

I checked it out. For a while, I lurked. Okay, it was only a short while. I could not resist their warmth and camaraderie. They told jokes and were very serious about the Warrior football team stories, information, and statistics. The bloggers had funny names too like at the other sites. The setup of the blog was unlike the others, it was one thread per day rather than hundreds of threads (topics) with posts attached to each. The more I lurked, the more I discovered I really liked the community and I began to blog.

Another game was coming up. It was the NMSU game. Kazz and BG put out an open invitation to all bloggers. Excited to attend, I sent an RSVP. At the Tsaiko-gate, some of the first Tsaikos I met were homey, al, and Koakane. They were so nice. Then I introduced myself to Wreck. Wreck says, “UHfan808. You’re a girl? I thought you were a guy!!! Wait till I tell Bulla!” Man, I blog like a guy?!? Well, my parents once tried to make me a girl. Guess I can’t have everything in life.

Now it dawns on me that the void in my life has always been football. Thanks for always knowing mom and dad! And while I will always miss that neighborhood gang, I think I’ve found a bigger one — Meet the Tsai-kos!

Thank yous, hugs, and kisses to everyone far and wide for your loving support and shared interest in UH sports. I consider you all a part of my family. Tsaikos will always be brothers and sisters to me for the rest of my life!

Hi there, I’m the UHfan that lives in 808. See you around and Aloha! UHfan808 = )

Here are the twins with Kanoa Leahey. That’s UHFan808 on the left, Midori7 on the right:

 After a long discussion with Jesse Sapolu, Greg McMackin has decided to visit (Western) Samoa in early 2009.
McMackin said he believes the independent state of Samoa, which is a 2-hour flight from American Samoa, has several athletes with Division I-A talent.

* * *

The SMU-UH goodwill trip to American Samoa was successful in many ways. Too often, coaches go to the U.S. territory solely for recruiting purposes. This time, the group of coaches went there to help, delivering medical supplies and teaching a two-day clinic.
The tour and the preceding golf tournaments on Kaua‘i and Kona gave closure to last year’s coaching staff. With the chaos surrounding June Jones’ sudden departure to SMU (followed by the departure of four UH assistants), there was little time for a proper goodbye. Jones and McMackin sat side-by-side on the flights to and from American Samoa.
“We just had a great time,” McMackin said.

* * *

Wideout Ryan Henry, a junior-college transfer, will arrive in town this week for Summer Session II, which starts next week.
But two other transfers — Jovonte Taylor and Dustin Blount — will remain at their JCs for the next few weeks.
It was hoped that Taylor and Blount would arrive early enough to participate in unsupervised workouts. But they still need to complete work at their JCs. They are expected to arrive in time for the start of training camp in August.

* * *

The donation money is being put to use. Each of the coaches received a new wide-screen television. Now, all of the practice and game videos can be shot in wide screen. Here’s offensive coordinator Ron Lee’s TV (with a video from a spring practice):

* * *

From what I’ve observed, several players have assumed leadership roles this season. The offensive leaders are Inoke Funaki, Tyler Graunke, Malcolm Lane, Leon Wright-Jackson, Daniel Libre, Dylan Linkner, Aaron Bain, Mike Washington, Jake Santos, Shane Austin, Ray Hisatake and Keith AhSoon. On defense, the guys running the show are David Veikune, Adam Leonard, Keala Watson, Ryan Mouton, Keao Monteilh and Blaze Soares. There are other leaders, of course, in other workouts.

This past weekend, Adam Leonard said, he went surfing for the first time. He said he went to Waikiki. Fortunately, he avoided the box jellyfish.

He is one of the few who embraces my camera:

* * *

It hasn’t been easy for Tyler Graunke to balance workouts with a busy academic schedule. But he has made the most of his time on the field. Graunke has been a helpful tutor:

And here’s Graunke with wideout Malcolm Lane:

* * *

Remember Jayson Rego, former state Offensive Player of the Year? He’s in the mix at running back. The No. 1s are Leon Wright-Jackson and Daniel Libre. Jake Heun and David Farmer are competing at power back. Mario Cox isn’t on the 105-player training camp roster, although he has been invited to rejoin the first day of school. Here’s Rego:

* * *

Big thanks to Dr. Dennis Watkins, who removed an inch-long cyst from my head today. He even did his own stitching. Quite a talented guy. Thanks again.

Doris Sullivan and Tony Tuioti are the top candidates for a non-coaching position in the UH program, a job that essentially will serve as a recruiting coordinator. Both, of course, are talented with great connections locally and on the Mainland. The word on the street is UH is looking into whether it is possible for Na Koa to pay for a second non-coaching position. That way both Sullivan and Tuioti could join the program.

* * *

While the “skill” guys are out in the humidity, the big guys are in the sauna known as Klum Gyym.

Here’s Raphael Ieru:

Here’s Joey Lipp:

Here’s Levi Legay:

Here’s Clarence “Lafu” Tuioti-Mariner:

Here’s Sila Lefiti:

Here’s Tui‘atua Tuiasosopo:

* * *

Give players, such as Dylan Linkner (pictured below) and Dan Kelly, for supporting cancer awareness programs: