The University of Hawaii wants to develop Australia as its own, exclusive territory when it comes to American college football and other sports — for recruits, fans, corporate support.

If there ever is a planting of the flag for UH in his homeland, Paul Manera’s hands should be among those on the staff.

Manera’s passion for American football and pride as a Rainbow Warrior continue to burn with intensity a quarter-century after his three years as an undersized offensive tackle soaking up everything about the game.

“I’ve got some awesome memories. My last game, when we played Notre Dame,” Manera said from his home in Sydney during a phone interview, Saturday morning his time, Friday afternoon our time. “We lost, 48-42, but it was a great game and some friends from Australia were there. And, of course, there were the two years we beat BYU after all those losses.”

The Sydney Cup game, featuring his alma mater against Cal at ANZ Stadium five days from now (again, Saturday there, Friday here), is something Manera has dreamed about for decades. He has coached American football, known in Australia as gridiron, nearly non-stop since a year as a UH graduate assistant coach in 1992.

“It’s very exciting, not just because of UH’s branding opportunity, but also for the game’s continued growth here,” said Manera, who briefly coached in Japan.

The former rugby player was introduced to the game at age 17, and after a year at a junior college in Mississippi was recruited to UH by then-offensive coordinator Paul Johnson.

In addition to coaching, Manera owns and operates Bring It On Sports with his wife, Elissa. The company facilitates school sports programs and coaching and skills clinics among its wide variety of services.

“I can’t take credit for this event, but I’m certainly happy about it,” he said.

He purchased a luxury box for the game and will host a slew of former ‘Bows, including Kelly McGill, Mark Nua from New Zealand and fellow Australian Scott Harding. And alumni from Australia and around the world will gather at a UH Foundation event the night before the game.

Manera’s time at UH was during one of the program’s ascents to a peak; Hawaii won the Western Athletic Conference championship and then the Holiday Bowl his year as a student coach.

That makes the run of five consecutive losing seasons hard for him to take. But like many others, Manera has high hopes for the new regime at Manoa.

“I’m really happy with (first-year head coach) Nick Rolovich,” Manera said. “He came out here and we did a satellite camp and the response was great.”

Manera returns to the islands regularly.

“I go to UH games now and see 16,000 in the stands when we used to get 40 or 50,000,” he said. “We can get it back to that, but it’s going to take all of us and doing games like this will really help. Lots of Australians go to Hawaii, all the time, and they love sports. If they know there’s a football game, they’ll go.”

This time, the Rainbow Warriors and American football come to them.

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