Saturday was senior night for the University of Hawaii football team, nearing the end of the busiest sports week of the year at UH, if not in the state.
But, taking into account performances in victories in football, and women’s volleyball and basketball, some underclassmen deserved to be celebrated, too.
>> Quarterback Micah Alejado broke numerous records in his first college start, passing for 469 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions, as UH beat New Mexico 38-30 at the Ching Complex.
>> A couple of hours earlier, Ritorya Tamilo helped the Wahine basketball team to their fifth win in a row, 47-39 over Tennessee-Martin. Tamilo, who did not suit up for Sunday’s loss to UCLA, has played an average of 19.3 minutes per game, and was second on the team in scoring with 10.8 points per game and rebounding with 4.8. She led in blocks with 11.
>> Miliana Sylvester was co-match high with 14 kills and was in on a match-high six blocks in the UH volleyball team’s four-set victory at the Big West championship tournament final, which propelled the Wahine into the NCAA Tournament.
What do Alejado, Tamilo and Sylvester have in common? They are all freshmen.
“The future is bright. This was a great week,” said Craig Angelos, as he sat with his grandsons at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Sunday, watching the women’s basketball team keep it close against No. 1 UCLA for a half. “It’s a great way to bring it to a close.”
If the future is bright and things coming to a close sounds contradictory, it’s because the now-former UH athletic director spoke during his last day on the job. And the termination was not by his choice.
Angelos declined to talk Sunday about why he was fired after just 18 months as the Hawaii athletic director.
No one can predict what the future holds for UH sports; well, except that the Wahine volleyball team is headed to Oregon to play TCU in the NCAA Tournament. That was announced Sunday, as the team and staff gathered in the hospitality room at the Sheriff Center.
The busy week at UH also included hosting the Hawaii High School Athletic Association’s Open Division football state championship game Friday.
UH did this last year, for the first time — and, on the same week, hosted the Maui Invitational basketball tournament because the Lahaina Civic Center was not available due to last year’s wildfires.
The basketball tournament featuring some of the nation’s best college teams returned to Lahaina last week, but prep football fans were at the Ching Complex in force again Friday, as Saint Louis edged Kahuku.
HHSAA executive director Chris Chun said associate athletic director Lois Manin — who starts as acting athletic director at Manoa today — worked with him, with final approvals from Angelos, to significantly cut costs this year.
“We were also able to sell more suites this year,” Chun said.
The bottom line financially for the HHSAA is it has $20,000 more to distribute to its member schools than it did last year, he said.
“Our relationships with all the UH athletic directors have always been good,” Chun said. “I appreciated how much they worked with us to try and help where they could.”
Several major banks are among the many businesses in Hawaii that appear to have had good, long-term working relationships with UH, too. For example, American Savings Bank sponsored the women’s basketball tournament last week. And the visitor industry is involved, too. In recent years, Outrigger Resorts &Hotels, in conjunction with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, has sponsored Big West volleyball championship events like the one the Wahine just won — even when the event is in California.
When the three freshmen noted above achieved the spectacular in recent days, some of the initial reactions were cynical. A segment of the fan base here has no confidence that UH can hold off schools with more money to pay athletes, and Hawaii’s blossoming stars will be developed here, only to be plucked away.
Will they stay?
Who knows? Everyone has reasons for their choices.
Student-athlete retention in the new competitive environment and how it meshes or doesn’t with traditional sponsorship models is one of many issues on the plate for the new athletic director, whoever is chosen, and whenever.
There are also coaches’ contracts to deal with and facility upgrades to work on — on campus and off. And, while the student-athlete experience is supposed to be the priority, showing appreciation for fans and athletic department staff is important, too.
These issues all affect each other. They can produce positive or negative synergy.
This is looking way ahead, but we can use the young man of the hour, Micah Alejado, as an example. He has four more years of eligibility, so if the timeline remains in place for the construction of the new Aloha Stadium, he and his UH football classmates who did not burn their redshirt can play there as seniors in 2028.
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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com.
