New University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich spoke to my Downtown Exchange Club in July. He was quarterback at UH under June Jones in 2000-2001. He led the Warriors to an 8-1 record in 2001 and set 19 school passing records.
He spoke about being a coach versus being a player; about Jones; about why kids from Hawaii want to go away to college; and unusual challenges of being a coach.
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“June Jones and I were both under consideration for the head coaching job. After I was chosen, he got up in front of his close friends and said, ‘It’s time for all of us to support UH football and support Rolo.’ When he said that, it was a big moment for me.
“It was an incredibly awkward time for both of us, but there’s no bad blood between us.
“He’s the best coach I’ve had in my life. He’s told me numerous times how much I mean to him, and I treasure that. He really wants UH football to be great and will do anything he can to that end.”
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Unexpected challenges of being a head coach.
“Former NFL coach Bill Parcells in his book, ‘A Football Life,’ says a head coach will have three to five things that come up a day, unexpectedly, out of the blue.
“I didn’t realize that picking jersey numbers would be so important to these kids and take up so much of my time. Many want the number they played with in high school. Some want a lucky number.
“There’s a feeling that having a single digit has a higher status. ‘Coach,’ they tell me. ‘I want a single digit.’
“With over 100 players, some have to have the same number. They can’t be on the field at the same time, so kids with the same number usually are on offense or defense. Not both.
“But then that presents a problem for special teams, which might be made up of players from both offense and defense. The special teams coach has to get involved. It’s a mess.
“Then, some positions require the player to have a number within a certain range.
“If you move one person, then you have to move another. It’s caused me many headaches. I tried to make everyone happy, but will not do it again. From now on I’ll let my equipment guys deal with this.”
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The biggest challenge: believing in themselves
“It’s hard to get a bunch of young kids to act like a team. When I walked in to the first team meeting and looked into the eyes of these kids, they were so empty.
“I spent two years as a player in that meeting room. I spent two years as an assistant with June and four years with (Greg) McMackin, and I had never seen that in their eyes.
“These kids believed they were supposed to lose. That’s a harsh statement. I told them the fans think you guys are losers, and above Dole Street, academically they think you’re losers. But you have a chance to prove them wrong.
“The team took that challenge. I need to hit the selfish decisions quickly, point them out and show the team that if we don’t change, we’ll be the same team we were.
“One kid said, ‘Give me a jersey with any number. I’m ready to play,’ That’s the mindset we need.”
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Why kids go away
“There are many reasons why Hawaii high school greats go to mainland colleges.
“In the 1980s UH won many games and got noticed. Coaches saw we did it with many Polynesian players and started recruiting them in Hawaii and the South Pacific. So it’s more competitive.
“It takes a strong local boy to stay at home. People encourage them to leave. They feel they will grow by getting off the island.
“Technology has come to football. Up until 2008 or so, coaches had to ask for a DVD of a kid, or he could send it to you. Now you can find it all online. Every high school in America pays a company called Huddle a yearly subscription.
“The team puts their games on Huddle, and kids can cut their own highlight recordings in an hour. It makes it easy for recruiters everywhere to spot local talent.”
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Football and money
“Most of our kids don’t understand much about money and NFL careers. We bring in people to talk to them.
“The average rookie salary in the NFL is, say, $500,000. The average career is four years. So that’s $2 million. It sounds like a lot, but taxes and management fees will take half of it.
“After a four-year ‘career,’ they have a million dollars. What are they going to do with it? They all say, they want to buy their mom a house.
“In Hawaii you can’t buy an average home for yourself and one for your mom with $1 million. And that leaves nothing for cars, groceries, furniture or entertainment.
“I suggest another way of looking at money. The difference, many say, between a high school education and someone with a college degree is $25,000 to $35,000 a year in extra earnings.
“If the average working life of an adult is 40 years, that’s over a million in extra income, if you finish college. I recommend they look at it long term.”
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Giving back to a big donor
“Uncle Joe Yamakawa, a 97-year-old 442 vet from a senior living facility, wanted to give all his money to UH athletics.
“‘What can we do for Uncle Joe?’ associate athletics director Kimo Kai asked me.
“He wanted to give me the check himself and get a tour of the athletic facilities. We gave him an autographed football and UH jersey with ‘442’ on the front and ‘Uncle Joe’ on the back.”
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If money was no object, one of our members asked, what would you do with the program?
“I dream of a football facility in the quarry next to the dorms that would house everything football: meeting, training and locker rooms.
“It would show a huge commitment to the program. Every other conference foe has a football building we just can’t match.
“By placing it in the quarry and connecting it to the dorm level, I believe we will see a greater connection to our general student population. I’d like to have a Jamba Juice/Starbucks on the top level.
“This would allow the Ching complex to host home soccer games and track events. Football would be able to move to the upper grass fields and be contained in that area.
“Then our current football offices and locker room could be used for some other sports that are feeling a bit confined at the moment. I like dreaming big, and it has worked for me in the past, so why quit now?”
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On the difference between being a player and being a coach
“Being a player was funner.”
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On behalf of all UH fans, I wish Nick and the team a great year.
Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep“ books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
