Like many who have spent significant time in the islands, former Hawaii receiver JoJo Ward has developed a fondness for rice.

Now back at home in Waco, Texas, Ward makes sure he has his daily serving. As part of his football training, Ward burrows his fists into a bucket of rice. The technique, borrowed from former UH teammate Jared Smart’s training, is intended to strengthen hands and forearms — key areas for receivers.

“It’s easy to find rice here,” Ward said. “It would be hard in Hawaii. You eat rice with everything in Hawaii. Back here, it’s easy to find in stores.”

The rice-bucket challenge is part of Ward’s workout regimen. “I continue to do the same things every day,” Ward said. “Nothing else to do. I might as well do what I can do.”

Ward, similar to many pro-football hopefuls, is finding ways to keep in shape during this COVID-19 pandemic. After completing his UH eligibility in the 2019 SoFi Hawaii Bowl in December, Ward participated in the Hula Bowl in January and then trained at LJ Performance in Houston ahead of UH’s scheduled pro day.

But the joint UH-UCLA pro day, which was planned for March 24 in Los Angeles, was canceled because of the pandemic. With the shutdowns, Ward relocated his training to Waco.

At LJ Performance, Ward went through the cycle of weight-training stations, as well as workouts involving bands and focusing on speed and footwork. “We went through the drills that we were going to do at the pro day,” Ward said.

In Waco, he said, he runs the hills hear his family’s home twice a day. He also works on his route running. He said he has a friend throw him passes, as well as fire tennis balls in his direction to maintain his hand-eye coordination.

He said he uses dumbbells as part of weight training, with some exercises taken from YouTube videos. “I can squat with dumbbells,” Ward said. “I’ve been doing lunges every day. I’ve got heavy weights, light weights.”

And he waits.

The NFL Draft is set for the end of this month. Ward, who is 5-9 and 175 pounds, is a late-round to free-agent consideration. In two UH seasons, he averaged 17.2 yards per catch, with 67.2% of his 116 receptions resulting in first downs. He had 42 catches exceeding 15 yards and 24 receptions of at least 25 yards. During training, he consistently clocked sub-4.5 seconds in 40-yard dashes. If pro day had been conducted, Ward said, “seeing all the scouts, the adrenaline would be pumping, I felt I was going to get 4.3, for sure.”

Rich Miano, executive director of the Newsweek Hula Bowl, said Ward was impressive during the all-star game’s workouts.

“JoJo Ward has the linear speed to play in the National Football League,” Miano said. “He has strong hands. He has really good intangibles. He will not be a disappointment, at least as a training-camp guy.”

Ward said he has heard from a “few teams. We’ll see what happens when this draft comes. I’m letting God handle it. I don’t know if I’ll be drafted. That’s every college player’s dream to be drafted. I pray it happens. I feel I’ll get a shot (at being invited to a camp), for sure.”

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