LAS VEGAS >> It was 20 minutes until the meeting of Mountain West football coaches, and Hawaii’s Timmy Chang still did not have a hotel room. He had been waiting for seven hours.
But in six months since taking over his alma mater’s football team, Chang has mastered patience and conquering tasks. While he waited, he handled scheduling details — UH’s training camp opens next Tuesday — texted with his assistant coaches, worked on plans for a golf tournament and, even, finalized a to-do list with his wife.
Chang, 40, who will speak at today’s Mountain West Football Media Days, also reiterated his love for what he hopes will be his last coaching job.
“I want to be here until I can’t coach anymore,” said Chang, acknowledging success will dictate longevity. “A lot of thing have to happen for that to happen for me. In my heart, I want to be here forever. Stability and
family and a sense of
purpose are important
to me. I love being in Hawaii. I love representing the state and building something that can last and we can be proud of. That’s what motivates me.”
Chang grew up in Waipio in humble surroundings. “My father was a PE teacher when he started,” he said of Levi Chang, who eventually ascended to principal of Nanakuli High. “My mother worked for Hawaiian Airlines. Like a lot of parents on the island, they wanted to give their children opportunities. They did what they had to do, and they made sacrifices they had to make.”
Chang attended Saint Louis School, where he became a record-setting quarterback. He turned down scholarship offers from West Coast schools to sign with UH. At the time, Chang believed, playing for the hone team would improve his chances of eventually working in Hawaii.
“I could have gone to a lot of places, but I thought bigger,” Chang said. “When I explain it to the recruits, especially guys from the island, you’ve got to think big, you’ve got to think long term. This football is just for a short amount of time. The college game is four, five years. And after your eligibility, (football) is not promised. You’ve got to make great decisions and have great determination to continue your career in your sport. At the same time, you have to set yourself up for life after.”
Chang said he developed coaching skills as a graduate assistant at SMU under former UH head coach June Jones, and then with assistant coaching jobs at Jackson State, Emory &Henry, and Nevada. He said he did not hesitate in accepting the UH offer as successor to Todd Graham. Several key players — including tri-captains Chevan Cordeiro, Darius Muasau and Khoury Bethley — had transferred.
“You take the challenge head on, and you try to do it the best way you think, and you make choices and goals, and you go,” Chang said. “I think the guys in the locker room and myself don’t like losing. We’ll go out there and play hard. It’s going to come down to not making mistakes. Because of how young we are and the inexperience, we’ve got to cut the learning curve. We have to make sure we keep building and learning from our mistakes. These games, I think, we’ll be close. Hopefully, we can pull them off in the close games.”
In related news:
>> The Warriors will not add new uniforms this year. “For us, it’s having some really good fundamentals and technique and doing it consistently,” Chang said. “If we can do that, we’ll look good in any uniform.”
>> Long-snapper Wyatt Tucker, who played in all 37 games the past three seasons, is no longer with the Warriors because of personal reasons.
