Meet Mr. Happy

Pick a moment, any moment.

There was the timeout two years ago when offensive lineman RJ Hollis was pictured on the Aloha Stadium scoreboard, dancing in the orange section with other University of Hawaii redshirt football players.

What about this summer, during the Rainbow Warriors’ freestyle battle, when Hollis spit rhymes at a fast and furious pace?

Or in this season’s opener, when he caught the Colorado quarterback’s throwaway pass behind the UH sideline, then broke into his version of the Nae Nae dance before a nocturnal national television audience?

Or …

"To be honest, the off-the-field stuff people catch is me doing what I do," Hollis said. "If you followed me with a camera 24 hours, I would be on the news all day every day. That’s what I do. I don’t do it for attention. That’s me being me. It just happens it attracts the attention of others."

Pick a moment, any moment, and Hollis appears to be upbeat. It could be when he is pushing a 150-pound weighted sled for the width of a football field 16 times on a muggy July morning. Or when he is blocking the nation’s best pass rusher —

Ohio State’s Joey Bosa — before 107,000 anti-UH fans.

"Life’s hard," Hollis reflected, but it does not have to be unpleasant. "Even the millionaires and billionaires of the world have issues. You might as well have fun if you’re going to go through life. If you sit there and bicker and harp and have a bad attitude, what’s hard is going to become harder. If you have a good attitude, what’s hard might become easier. Why take the chance of making things worse?"

Hard time? That would be Reginald Hollis Sr.’s 10 years in prison, where he tried to raise RJ and his brother through letters and phone calls. The elder Hollis already was a changed man when he was granted freedom — when RJ was 15 — and made up for the lost time bonding over football.

"When he came out, he was an excellent father," RJ said. "Coming from where I come from, a lot of people have fathers who are not incarcerated who won’t come around their children."

RJ said his father works hard, fears God, and is trying to revive a youth football program whose support had dried several years ago under the Arizona sun.

"He’s really a good guy," RJ said.

Hard time? That would be Stephanie Hollis’ 16-hour shifts as a nurse assistant to support RJ and his brother. Often, she would have long shifts for three, four days in a row.

"I remember a couple of nights she would come home after a shift, cook, and fall asleep in her scrubs because she was going to go back to work for another 16-hour shift," RJ said. "She never complained."

RJ once had a part-time job in a Christmas-tree lot. "I worked a six-hour shift," he said. "She worked 16 hours of cleaning up behind people who can’t use the bathroom by themselves, or can’t walk, or can’t feed themselves. That’s hard."

RJ is a grown man now, standing 6 feet 4 and weighing 295 pounds. He fought off Bosa — not allowing a sack or Bosa’s shrug celebration. But Stephanie still sends money for expenses not covered by her son’s scholarship check. His parents will call regularly — Reginald to talk football and avoiding mistakes; Stephanie just to talk.

"My mom instilled in me that life is going to be hard, you might as well enjoy it," RJ said. "I could never repay her for all the money in the world or all the love in the world. If I had to give my heart and soul to someone, it would definitely be to her."