Football players from Hawaii feeling at home in Canada

There’s no poi to eat and no halau for their wives to join.

Summer is great. All two weeks of it.

But they’ve gathered there anyway.

“If this keeps up, I’m going to have to get a bigger rice cooker,” says Jeff Reinebold.

At first glance, there’s really not much reason for three former University of Hawaii football players to have ended up in Hamilton, Ontario.

“It definitely gets cold, but it’s more the wind,” says Kealoha Pilares, noting Hamilton is about 60 miles northwest of Buffalo, N.Y., an industrial port city on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Of course you can’t be too picky when trying to jump-start or extend a pro football career and the NFL isn’t exactly knocking down your door. But why Hamilton?

Well, there’s Reinebold, the former UH assistant coach — from South Bend, Ind., but Hawaiian at heart — who vouches for them and bids them e komo mai.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats, with Reinebold as their special teams and linebackers coach, open camp next week. Charles Clay recently joined Chad Owens and Pilares on the roster of the team based 4,630 miles from the Manoa campus.

Owens established himself as a superstar in Toronto, winning the league’s Most Outstanding Player award and the Grey Cup (the CFL’s championship game).

But now the Roosevelt High grad will suit up for the Argonauts’ rival. For Toronto folks, this is as outrageous as a Blue Jay deciding to become a Texas Ranger right now. Maybe more.

Toronto decided not to re-sign Owens, 34. Think that gives the player known here as “Mighty Mouse” who went from walk-on to All-America recognition at UH some motivation?

“When we talked about (signing) Chad I said I don’t care if he’s running a 4.5 (40-yard sprint) now,” Reinebold says. “When he comes to our facility he will change the entire dynamic of our football team. So far, he has.”

Pilares says he looks forward to tips on the subtleties of the CFL from Owens. The Damien product is a CFL neophyte who arrived in Hamilton last year in time for one playoff game.

“I’m still learning the rules,” said Pilares, who was drafted in the fifth round by Carolina Panthers in 2011, but was dogged by injuries. “I think Chad will help us a lot, in a lot of ways.

“It’s crazy. He played for the big rivals. The fans of the two teams really don’t like each other. … Kind of like Kahuku and Punahou.”

Owens started out in the NFL, too. But after a disastrous first regular-season game with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2005, he ended up in the CFL … and found a home. Like the BC Lions’ Solomon Elimimian, who earned CFL Most Outstanding Player honors as a linebacker, after thriving a couple of years north of the border Owens decided not to chase the NFL.

Clay, from Hilo High (and not to be confused with the tight end of the same name down the road from Hamilton with the Bills), got a shot with the Green Bay Packers last year. A ’tweener for the NFL at 5 foot 11 and 210, Clay has the speed to be a perfect fit as a weakside linebacker in Canada with its wider field, Reinebold says.

The TiCats also have running back Anthony Woodson, whose father of the same name was a linebacker at UH in the early 1980s known for an iconic photo of a leaping sack of a quarterback. And Jeremiah Masoli, the Oregon and Ole Miss quarterback who spent a year at Saint Louis School, is in camp, too.

“It’s an interesting place,” Pilares says of Hamilton, as he packs for the permanent move from Atlanta, where he rehabbed his injuries. “The weather, the people.

“One difference I noticed about the CFL. They don’t believe in domes. They like to set themselves apart from the NFL any way they can.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.