University of Hawaii equipment staff is truly first in, last out

If you were to guess who catches the most balls at a University of Hawaii football practice, you might say John Ursua, since he spent a lot of the season leading the nation in receptions, right?

But you’d be wrong.

After almost every play in practice, a ball is tossed to student equipment manager Kirk Muranaka, so that he can place it at the correct starting spot for the next scripted play. He drops very few.

“A lot of one-handers,” coach Nick Rolovich said. “A lot with another football in the other hand. You might want to put a step count on him, too.”

Rolovich loves to bestow nicknames. Some are inside jokes or purposely nonsensical. But it’s easy to see how Muranaka got the moniker of “Rolling Thunder.”

He is in almost constant motion. After receiving each ball, Muranaka runs to place it where the next play starts, guaranteeing the team stays on schedule.

“If he was lazy, we’d name him ‘Fog’ or something like that,” Rolovich said. “But he’s non-stop hustle. ‘Pig Bristle’ (assistant equipment manager Brandon Devie) used to grind too. But now he’s in the office, doing administrative stuff.”

Muranaka was in the band, not on the football team, at Saint Louis School. But as the NFL is a possibility for Ursua, it is for him as well.

Muranaka aspires to work as an equipment manager with a pro team. If successful, he would join UH graduate Kyle Kamau, who was a student equipment manager for the Warriors from 2007 to 2011 and is now an equipment services assistant for the Houston Texans.

Sady Ancheta and Skyena Antolin are also tireless workers and invaluable to keeping practice going smoothly.

“We couldn’t do it without ‘Sunnyside’ (Ancheta) and ‘Sundance’ (Antolin) too,” Rolovich said. “And don’t forget ‘The Badger’ (head equipment manager Al Ginoza).”

Rolovich pointed out that each of the student managers does the work of three counterparts at many other college teams.

“Most programs have a manager for every position group,” he said. “We have three doing what 10 do.”

After setting everything up to start practice, during the session they move, repair and replace equipment as needed.

“They basically run the show,” said Devie, who supervises the student managers. “Rolo calls the shots, but Sady and Skyena and Kirk make it happen.”

They report for work at 5:30 in the morning on practice days. Antolin, who lives in Mililani, gets up at 3:30 a.m. to make it in time. She has five classes in addition to what amounts to nearly a full-time job.

“They’re the first in and the last out every day,” senior offensive lineman J.R. Hensley said.

“Even more than the players. Without them we can’t travel, we can’t practice.”

After practice, the student managers go to class. They return to the equipment room later to do laundry and prepare for the next day. It’s common for them not to leave campus until 6 p.m.

“During the season you don’t have a social life,” said Ancheta, a senior business major who went to high school in California but has family here. “But this has been a good experience because you learn a lot, especially about time management.”

Those who work extremely long hours in-season are compensated with lighter workloads at other times of the year.

Each player turns in his laundry in a bag that is called a “loop.” Since they also lift weights and do other workouts in addition to practice, some turn in three loops per day.

Some players are more appreciative than others.

“A lot of guys can be sour, and they deal with that. They take care of all 115 of us,” senior defensive lineman Zeno Choi said. “Not only that, it’s not like other schools, where they just do football. Our equipment managers help the other sports, and the other sports’ help ours, too.

“When I see them it reminds us we’re not the only ones out there grinding. Coaches, managers, trainers, staff. Everyone’s in it together.”