For the Hawaii football team’s fourth of six road trips this season, the travel plan is this: shut-eye for the red-eye.
“For this plane ride, sleep is really key,” defensive tackle Geoffrey Speight said of the 4,255 miles and five time zones the Rainbow Warriors will travel ahead of Saturday’s Mountain West game against Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Ill.
Per UH’s research, this is the greatest distance any FBS team will have traveled to play a conference game within the United States.
“It’s a long one,” quarterback Micah Alejado said.
For the first three trips — to Northern California, Wyoming and Arizona — the Warriors practiced on a Thursday morning and then departed that day. They arrived at their hotel that night.
This time, the Warriors will have a two-hour practice this morning, meetings throughout the day, and depart on a red-eye flight tonight. They will land in Oakland to refuel on Thursday morning, then take off on a 4 1/2-hour flight to Chicago’s Midway International Airport. After arriving in the afternoon, they will have a walk-through session at an area high school.
“We have a pretty good plan in place,” strength/conditioning coordinator Bobby Thomas said, noting general manager Matt Chon and director of football operations Reyn Shiraishi arranged the new flight plans. “If not, we would have left Thursday morning and wouldn’t have gotten there until Friday morning at 3 o’clock.”
The Warriors have experienced diverse conditions this season. The game against Wyoming was played at Laramie’s 7,200-foot elevation, where the thin air lengthened passes and kicks but shortened breaths. Against Arizona State, the morning of the game began with triple-digit temperatures, then dissolved into a sand and dust storm known as a haboob.
“I was on the eighth floor (of the hotel), and I saw a dust storm building up,” center Judah Kaio said. “I went into the bathroom. I came out five minutes later, and (the storm) was covering the hotel. It was like ‘Resident Evil.’”
That night, the halftime show was canceled because of a lightning storm.
“It’s been wild,” linebacker Wynden Ho‘ohuli said. “This has been one of the craziest travel years by far.”
For the first UH football game in Illinois, Thomas consulted with contacts from NFL teams that played in London. The recommendation was sleep and hydration.
For tonight’s flight, each Warrior will receive a “sleep pack,” which will include eye shades and supplements containing Melatonin to help sleep-wake cycles. They also will be asked to turn off their cell phones and tablets.
“They’ll sleep OK on the plane,” Thomas said. “Nobody sleeps tremendous. They should get a good amount of sleep.”
Ho‘ohuli, a father of two, welcomes sleeping during the flight.
“Waking up with the kids,” Ho‘ohuli said of his home schedule, “I’m just able to get the right amount of sleep. Being able to rest the body on that flight is a big thing.”
During the refueling in Oakland, the preference is to continue sleeping, although players have the option of stretching their legs by walking the aisles or the jetway. When they reach the hotel, they will receive meals, as well as a glass of cherry juice, which contains natural Melatonin.
“It helps you go to sleep,” Thomas said. “Helps with inflammation, too.”
For the Wyoming trip, the Warriors had a glass of beet juice, which helps with blood flow.
“It’s not that bad,” Speight said of beet juice. “People make it seem worse than it is. It’s a unique thing. You just take a little shot and get it down, chase it with some BodyArmour or Powerade, and you’ll be all right.”
Of the beet and cherry juices, Ho‘ohuli said: “They’re good for the system. It’s for your body. You want to be healthy. Health is wealth.”
Thomas said the players will be kept on Central time, meaning a 10 p.m. curfew (which would be 5 p.m. in Hawaii). Saturday’s wake-up call will be sounded at 9 a.m. (4 a.m. in Hawaii) ahead of the 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff.
“Everything is set up throughout the day so they can go to bed tired,” Thomas said. “At the end of the day, we have to show up and work. Nobody is going to feel bad for us making this trip. … We’re giving them the tools and resources to be successful. They have to take ownership of that, and use those resources to sleep and hydrate.”
