Win or lose, UH teams give us a reason to cheer

The highs were high and and lows were pretty low over the weekend for University of Hawaii’s football and women’s volleyball teams. But perhaps the biggest takeaway was that there is much to look forward to with newbie football coach Nick Rolovich’s Warriors and veteran women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji’s fledgling Rainbow Wahine team.

Although Down Under wasn’t where the Warriors wanted to be score-wise in their season opener in Australia, the 51-31 loss against Cal beat the spread — and their performance held promise. After losing its first two matches, the Wahine eked out a hard-fought, five-set victory against University of Arizona Sunday that showed heart and fierce determination.

Honors for Mariota still rolling in

It’s quite an honor to have a university athletics facility named after you, all the more so if you’re only 22.

That would be Hawaii native Marcus Mariota, graduate of Saint Louis School, who brought so much attention to the University of Oregon as quarterback of its extremely successful football team that it decided to call its new, $19.2 million athletic facility (underwritten by Nike co-founder Phil Knight) the “Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center.”

Pretty cool. But how’s he doing now? In 2015, Mariota joined the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, but their record during his first year was just 3-9. Here’s hoping their 2016 season ends better, and that maybe someday, the Titans, too, will name something after Mariota.