For nearly 30 years, Norm Chow strode into Hawaii living rooms and presented compelling cases for some of the top college football prospects in the state to go away.
Judging from the number of players he was able to pluck out of the University of Hawaii’s backyard on behalf of Brigham Young, USC and UCLA, you’d have to say he was pretty good at it.
Too good for many UH fans and coaches at the time.
So, when Chow took the Warriors’ head coaching job a lot of people wondered — minus Pac-12 or BYU portfolios to peddle: Could he reverse field and keep some prospects home?
On Wednesday at least, the answer was yes.
Remarkably, despite taking the job Dec. 21 when most of the leading prospects had already made commitments elsewhere, Chow got three of the bluer chips from local high schools to sign on the dotted line, a feat that often eluded previous UH regimes even with a head start.
Punahou running back Steven Lakalaka, Kamehameha offensive lineman Kiha Sai and Kahuku linebacker Benetton Fonua all signed on and the Warriors nearly yanked a fourth, Kamehameha defensive back Taylor Taliulu, away from Washington State.
In their 11th hour scramble across Hawaii, Utah, California and the West, Chow & Co. somehow cobbled together a better class than initially seemed possible a month ago.
For the Warriors, the bottom line is — and always has been — hitting paydirt here and then building around it with the best available players from afar. Traditionally, when UH has done well in backyard recruiting it has done well on the field. Get a share of the best players from in state and there is a foundation for success not to mention enhanced validity with ticket-buying fans.
That’s where Lakalaka and Sai, two of the Star-Advertiser’s Top 10 in-state prospects, and the promising Fonua come in. They can be that toehold UH has been looking to reestablish and desperately needed.
Much in the way, perhaps, keeping Blane Gaison and Jesse Sapolu home in the late 1970s helped open doors for Dick Tomey’s Rainbow revival.
In local homes especially, Chow preached getting in on the ground floor of something special. “Coach Chow told us everything we wanted is here and we could be part of building up the program,” Lakalaka said at the Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance annual letter of intent signing ceremony at the Sheraton Hawaii. “We — Kiha and Benny (Fonua) — liked that. We talked about it on our recruiting trip.”
Said Sai, “He talked about building something at home in front of our families, friends and community, a legacy, he called it.”
You get the feeling Chow’s words resonated because they weren’t just front-porch salesmanship. This wasn’t just some guy putting on another hat and delivering a spiel.
“If it hadn’t been Coach Chow, it would have been a different story,” Sai said.
Indeed, the vision was believeable largely because of the man presenting it. This was a message from the heart of someone who has, himself, come home to try and build an enduring legacy.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
