From 4,700 miles away in Pennsylvania, Elisha Rhodes had aloha for the University of Hawaii football team.
She followed and cheered for her nephew, wideout Quinton Pedroza, and his teammates. She kept track through internet reports and his regular calls.
“She was a big fan of me and what I do,” said Pedroza, who equally admired the aunt who served as his mentor and inspiration.
On Aug. 9, Rhodes went to bed and never awakened. She was 37.
“It was sudden,” Pedroza said. “It was in her sleep. Nobody expected it. It was a normal night going to sleep. And then I got a phone call. That was terrible news you don’t want to receive.”
It was early in the Rainbow Warriors’ training camp when Rhodes died. It would take time to finalize arrangements. The memorial service and burial were this weekend in Redlands, Calif.
Rhodes probably would have wanted her nephew to remain with the team preparing for Thursday’s opener against Colorado. But the UH coaches insisted on excusing Pedroza. He agreed.
“I felt I needed to (go to Redlands) to show my respects, even though I know she would have understood,” Pedroza said. “She would have done the same for me.”
Pedroza departed on Friday and returned on Sunday. During his visit, he learned that Rhodes’ boyfriend had planned to propose.
“It was a messed-up situation all the way around,” Pedroza said.
Pedroza has overcome adversity. He was a promising receiver at Utah when he was booted from the team for under-aged consumption of alcohol.
He then transferred to UH, where he was reunited with head coach Norm Chow, who was Utah’s offensive coordinator in 2011, when Pedroza was a freshman.
He missed most of this past spring training while recovering from a broken right foot.
This offseason, Pedroza embraced strength/conditioning coordinator Gary Beemer’s workouts. Pedroza lost 6 pounds, and now weighs 217. At 6 feet 2, it was decided that his build and speed made him a good fit at right wideout, abandoning plans to split time between inside and outside receiver. Everything was going well …
“You hate to get hit with stuff like that,” Pedroza said. “But those kinds of things, you’ve got to look at it in a positive way and roll forward and know (Rhodes is) in a better place.”
Pedroza said he is able to compartmentalize his life.
“Normally, when I come out here,” he said of UH’s practices, “I leave my problems outside the yellow lines. I use this time to unplug with what’s going on with my life — good, bad, and everything in between. (After Rhodes died), I focused on what the task was that day. Outside the lines, it hit me.”
Rhodes was proud of Pedroza, who earned a bachelor’s degree in May. Now Pedroza said he will play for her memory.
“She’s my motivation,” Pedroza said.
