One by one the cream of the crop of Hawaii high school football players signed National Letters of Intent Wednesday morning to attend their choice of colleges.

There would be more than a touch of irony that they did so under a sponsor’s banner that proclaimed "Protect This House" while the majority were booking passage away to other shores and distant stadiums.

In the annual ceremonies at the Sheraton Waikiki, hosted by the Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance, where players proudly don the hats of their new schools, the University of Hawaii was outnumbered on its own beachfront.

That UH lost out on a determined 11th-hour blitz to keep home prize offensive lineman Fred Ulu-Perry of Saint Louis School, who followed through on a commitment to UCLA, was unfortunate but hardly surprising.

The disappointment was that Nevada-Las Vegas wooed away two players previously committed to UH. Kahuku defensive tackle Salanoa-Alo Wily and Red Raider teammate Soli Afalava, a defensive back, both signed with the Rebels.

That’s a telling referendum on the current perception of the program.

You expect the more well-heeled Pac-12 teams to win the day in recruiting here –and they did with eight scholarship signees. National championship runner-up Oregon grabbed three plus some walk-ons while California landed two.

But UNLV? 

The Rebels fired their head coach days after losing here three months ago to UH and replaced him with a former high school coach. And it’s not like their history or facilities are light years better than UH.

Overall, UH’s Mountain West foes, UNLV, San Diego State and Utah State, plucked at least five prospects from here. And Nevada could still add one.

In the tally, UH landed three of the state’s Top 20 prospects while MWC foes scooped up at least four. This without Boise State sticking its hand in.

Make no mistake, UH got some promising local players, Mililani offensive lineman Jordan Agasiva, Campbell linebacker Solomon Matautia  and ‘Iolani lineman Kamuela Borden among them. But the ‘Bows didn’t get nearly enough of them from the traditional wellspring that has been their own back yard.

With questions about head coach Norm Chow’s survival hanging over the program for months and a coaching staff in flux, maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. But Wednesday’s showing didn’t do anything to disperse the clouds.

Once upon a happier, more successful time, UH could wrestle a prospect away from the lower level schools of the Pac-10 now and then. And because it did, it could even beat some of them on the field occasionally.

But thanks to gleaming new facilities, all-day Las Vegas buffet-like training tables and smoothie bars, not to mention the conference’s own TV network, that gap is widening. When the cost-of-attendance stipends and other benefits get thrown on the pile later this year, the divide will be Grand Canyon-like. 

 Now the struggle is for UH to fend off MWC poachers, if it can. 

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.