Bay Area homecoming a big deal for Rolovich

Mountain View, Calif. >> It’s another football Saturday in the Mountain West Conference and that means it’s another reunion for Nick Rolovich as Hawaii visits San Jose State.

And thousands of miles from the previous week.

For the sixth game in a row to start the season, Hawaii (2-3, 1-0 MWC) plays on a different land mass than the previous game.

This doesn’t faze UH’s first-year head coach.

“The schedule sets up nice,” he said after practice at Saint Francis High School.

Rolovich was answering a question about how the worst of the travel is over, and the conference slate is back-loaded. But it also could’ve been about personal connections and relationships.

Last week he had to coach against players he’d recruited as the Nevada offensive coordinator the previous four years. While it made things interesting for everyone, Rolovich said it was agonizing, more difficult than he thought.

Against the Spartans today there will also be strong emotion, but little if any of it mixed.

This time it’s not just a reunion with people he cares about. It’s homecoming, too, and those people include family and childhood friends — and fans and former teammates and coaches from his playing high school, junior college and pro playing days.

Rolovich is from Novato, up north in Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Here, down U.S. 101 in the South Bay, is one of Rolovich’s homes as a professional football player.

This part of the bay is also where the proverbial next door opened, when Rolovich realized coaching was his future.

He spent two years as the backup quarterback for the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League. In 2004, San Jose won the AFL championship with him on the roster.

In an AFL web site Q and A while he was at Nevada, Rolovich said not being able to beat out Mark Grieb as the starting quarterback was a dose of reality about his future as a player.

It never affected his attitude, though. Terry Malley said Rolovich’s massive popularity had nothing to do with him being the No. 2 quarterback.

“He has a passion for football and a passion for his teammates,” said Malley, who was the SaberCats offensive coordinator. “That’s why he is where he is. They don’t make ‘em any better.”

Rolovich returned the compliment. “He’s the best. The best,” he said of Malley.

Malley said it’s no surprise Rolovich makes lifelong friends everywhere he goes.

“He just loves people. And that’s one of the things you look at with the college programs,” said Malley, who is now offensive coordinator at Santa Clara, where he was also a winning head coach. “You gotta be a people person. Those guys that care about the players, they separate themselves.

“In this business some guys are always looking for the big paycheck and the next step up and don’t care enough for the players,” Malley continued. “The friendly personality is just the way (Rolovich) is and always has been. They gotta like you. If they don’t like the guy who plays behind center it’s hard to win.”

Malley understood what Rolovich was going through as the backup quarterback. It was a position he held as a player at Santa Clara, behind Honolulu’s Saint Louis School legend Kaipo Spencer in the 1970s.

“Kaipo’s one of my favorites,” Malley said, after addressing the Rainbow Warriors following Friday’s practice.

Former UH lineman Ray Hisatake — also a former SaberCat — also talked to the team. Hisatake is now an assistant dean and football coach at Saint Francis.

Hisatake said he has no doubt Rolovich will succeed as head coach at Hawaii.

“He understands the culture, and that goes a long way,” he said.

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