The bond between Hawaii football player J.R. Hensley and New York Yankees players was “Destiny.”

“I play ‘Destiny,’ the video game, with a lot of the Yankees’ starting lineup, like Aaron Judge and Greg Bird,” said Hensley, the Rainbow Warriors’ starting right guard. “We play each other all the time. We talk on the mic all the time. It’s hilarious.”

Hensley said Judge, the Yankees’ rookie slugger, is “a normal guy. He loves playing video games. He’s a great dude. He’s big in my family. We’re friends. We like playing video games together.”

The friendships began through Hensley’s older brother, Ty Hensley, the Yankees’ first-round pick in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.

“It was a hard pill for me to swallow when my brother got drafted because I was a huge Red Sox fan,” Hensley said. “But when he got drafted, I converted over (to the Yankees) for a little while. I still love the guys, love watching Aaron Judge.”

But Ty Hensley had several health issues with the Yankees. He had hip surgery, incurred a staph infection, and underwent two Tommy John surgeries to repair damage to his right (pitching) elbow. Because he was not on the Yankees’ 40-player roster in his first five years of pro ball, he was made available in the Rule 5 draft. The Tampa Bay Rays selected him.

“Now he’s working his way up the system again,” J.R. Hensley said of his older brother.

J.R. Hensley has ascended the UH depth chart. Hensley, a third-year sophomore from Oklahoma, made his first start in last year’s Hawaii Bowl. He has started the past three games, during which the Warriors averaged 224.0 rushing yards. The Warriors did not allow a sack in last week’s game against San Jose State.

“Every day you have to put on your work boots out here,” Hensley said following Friday’s rainy practice at the Ching Athletic Complex. “You have to put on a good attitude. You can’t come out here and bull-crap around. You’ve got to get down and dirty. We didn’t come to Hawaii to be nonchalant. We didn’t come to Hawaii to lose.”

Through his sophomore year at Santa Fe High, Hensley aspired to play football and baseball in college.

“After a time, you don’t see a lot of offensive lineman/pitcher combos,” Hensley said. “It doesn’t happen. My body kind of chose (football) for me.”

Even though Hensley did not play baseball as a senior, he still received baseball offers from Division II schools. By then, he was set on playing football for the Warriors. After the seventh game of his first UH season in 2015, head coach Norm Chow was fired. Three weeks ago, Chris Naeole, who was held over from Chow’s staff, resigned as offensive line coach.

“I chose Hawaii because this was the best place for me, even with the staff and everybody being gone,” Hensley said. “I couldn’t have picked a better head coach right now. I’ve got Coach (Nick Rolovich). He’s on my side, and I’m on his side. I’m going to keep playing for him until they don’t need me anymore.”