The polls have closed, and the University of Hawaii football team has elected three defensive players and two receivers from the run-and-shoot offense as this season’s captains, head coach Timmy Chang announced.
Middle linebacker Logan Taylor, who is considered the Rainbow Warriors’ spiritual and vocal leader, received the most votes in polling by the players. The UH coaches did not vote.
Free safety Peter Manuma, defensive lineman Ezra Evaimalo, wideout Jonah Panoke and slotback Koali Nishigaya also were selected as captains.
Taylor, who grew up in Harbor City, Calif., is in his seventh year of college. He was at Southern Utah for one season and El Camino College for another before transferring to UH in 2000. But Taylor appeared to lose a step as a defensive back in 2020, his first year with the Warriors, and was referred to as “Slow-gan.” It turned out he had suffered a broken toe. After playing in four games as a linebacker in 2021, he underwent surgery to alleviate the pain in his foot.
Filling in when weak-side linebacker Isaiah Tufaga was injured in 2022, Taylor amassed 85 tackles to become the team leader despite starting only the second half of the season. Last year, he suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the third game. After undergoing surgery, Taylor attended every practice, bellowing instructions from a folding chair. He was cleared to practice in July.
Taylor and his wife, Theresa, have two sons, Kobe King and Vader Ali‘i, and expect a third child in March.
Evaimalo, a 2020 Kamehameha Schools graduate, was recruited as a rush end. After signing, Nick Rolovich left as head coach, and Todd Graham moved Evaimalo to 3-tech (aligned on the weak-side gap across the guard and tackle.) Evaimalo is credited with a powerful punch, a move to fend off grasping blockers. Despite missing three games because of a leg issue last year, Evaimalo amassed 15 pressures, a team-high 3.5 sacks and missed only three tackles in 276 snaps.
“He’s what we call heavy-handed,” defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said of Evaimalo. “He’s got the kind of punch that Mike Tyson had. There are certain guys who have the ability to uncoil from the base, from the ground up. Ez does that.”
Manuma, a 2021 Campbell High graduate, grayshirted that fall and joined the Warriors in January 2022. He started all 13 games in 2022, breaking into the starting lineup in the fifth game. Since then, Manuma has made 21 consecutive starts.
Nishigaya is a 2020 Saint Louis School graduate who joined the Warriors as a walk-on receiver. He played in three games in 2020 and six the following season. But in December 2021, he suffered a broken foot and was not cleared to play until the middle of the 2022 season. He was held out of that season’s regular-season finale to stay within the four-game limit for redshirt status.
During a team meeting at the end of 2023 spring training, Nishigaya was summoned to the front of the lecture hall. On the screen behind him flashed this announcement: “You’re on scholarship.”
Last season, Nishigaya finished third on the team with 39 receptions. He caught a team-best 83.3% of the passes when he was the primary target.
Panoke, a 2018 Saint Louis School graduate, has the longest current UH tenure. He has played under head coaches Nick Rolovich, Graham and Chang. Panoke has overcome several injuries to play in 37 games. He also has served on several mentorship committees, and is widely credited as one of the leaders of the so-called Braddahhood movement that helped unify the Warriors.
