Five stories to keep an eye on in 2022:
UH football
1. This year started Saturday the way last year ended, with the flagship sports program of the state, the University of Hawaii football team, in a crisis mode like never before.
Two victories on the field to end the regular season at 6-7 did little to stem growing discontent with second-year head coach Todd Graham, and athletic director David Matlin for hiring him.
The biggest of many problems seems to be that many of the Warriors’ best performers don’t want to play for Graham, and have made that clear by abandoning ship for other schools, en masse via the NCAA transfer portal. Of course there will be players coming in, so fans should be looking at the entrance, too. But it’s highly unlikely the new guys will be anywhere near as capable as quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, linebacker Darius Muasau and several other talented and experienced starters who bid aloha to Manoa with eligibility remaining.
It didn’t help matters that the season began without fans allowed in the stands due to state and city restrictions and ended with UH pulling out of the EasyPost Hawaii Bowl. A combination of coronavirus infections and the portal defections left the Warriors without enough players for a game.
This led to more unhappy fans, and the vitriol has reached the state capitol; the first big local sports event of 2022 will be a legislative information briefing Friday where state lawmakers ask questions of a yet unnamed UH official or officials (including the athletic director if precedent tells us anything).
And the snowball of strife keeps rolling down the hill and getting bigger, as fans question the lawmakers’ motivation and capability of doing anything to fix what ails UH football.
Regardless, many seeking answers will tune in Friday for the online hearing that is open to the public. How it could impact the program’s future, if at all, is anyone’s guess at this point.
Stadium issues
2. Where will the Rainbow Warriors play their 2022 home games? We know the answer to that one. The Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex, where plans are to expand the 9,000-seat capacity to 15,000.
When fans were finally allowed to attend games, reviews were generally positive for the on-campus facility. It’s especially good for students who dorm. Not so good for tailgating though, one reason being that parking is in a structure, not a lot.
But what of the ongoing saga of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District?
The whittling down of three finalists for the project was delayed from last month to sometime this year. Does that mean the construction of the new stadium in Halawa is delayed beyond what we last heard, which was 2023?
And will the nearby Red Hill tainted water situation affect the stadium project and the accompanying new businesses of the envisioned entertainment district?
MMA
3. Max Holloway is always worth keeping an eye on, but what the UFC superstar from Waianae does this year could be especially interesting as he tries to reach the summit a second time.
Holloway turned 30 last month. In November he decisioned Yair Rodriguez in a brutal fight that had them both posing for photos afterward in an ambulance. Holloway’s victory positioned the former featherweight world champ for another shot at the top, perhaps this year.
Alexander Volkanovski has beaten Holloway twice, once to wrest the title from him and another to defend it. But both fights were close enough that UFC owner Dana White says Holloway deserves another chance, especially after the action-packed win against No. 3 contender Rodriguez.
“This is a guy that Volkanovski’s going to have to just get him out of the way and do it again,” White said.
Welterweight Ray Cooper III, 28, of Pearl City enters 2022 with a six-match winning streak, including his second Professional Fighters League championship last October. That victory again came with a seven-figure payday.
Will this second-generation seasoned MMA pro surpass his personal-best eight-match winning streak and contend for another PFL title?
Rich Hill debuts as UH baseball coach
4. The year after the UH baseball team finished second at the College World Series, Rich Hill started his college playing career at Hawaii rival San Diego State. Now, 40 years later, he debuts as the program’s third official head coach since 1971.
Hill has a long record of success at the University of San Diego, a small school that made nine NCAA Tournament appearances in his 23 years as the Toreros head coach. Kris Bryant, the 2016 National League MVP, won the Golden Spikes award (player of the year in college baseball) while playing for Hill.
He expressed a true love for Hawaii while winning his introductory news conference last June. Now we’ll see if he can win the games, starting Feb. 18 against Washington State.
5. Kahuku dynasty???
5. Now that Saint Louis’ lastest run of state championships is over, is Kahuku positioned to successfully defend the football Open Division state championship it won 49-14 against the Crusaders last week?
It’s hard to imagine them being even better next year, but Star-Advertiser high school sports editor Billy Hull says the 2022 Red Raiders have the potential to be a historically great team and repeat their 10-0 performance of this fall.
A load of key contributors are among the 27 underclassmen on the current roster, including electrifying receiver Kainoa Carvalho.
Several other teams will have something to say about that, including Mililani, which gave the Raiders their closest scare in 2021, when the Trojans scored the first 14 points of the game eventually won 21-14 by Kahuku.
