Hawaii Warrior World

Formerly about Rainbow Warriors basketball, but now covering all University of Hawaii sports.

About the blog host

Brian McInnis has covered sports on Oahu full time since 2007, when he joined the Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff as a general reporter. He was the UH basketball beat writer from the 2008-09 season through 2017-18. Follow him on twitter @Brian_McInnis

Latest news

Strom-Okimoto goes off in key UH win

By Brian McInnis on October 7, 2018

Five? Ten? Fifteen? It was tough to tally exactly how many times Raisa Strom-Okimoto laid out or was laid out on the pitch on Sunday — either from her own doing or from a physical UC Davis side. “It was quite a lot, yeah,” Strom-Okimoto said afterward, grass stains evident all over her white uniform. What was clear — the Aiea alumna would not be denied on this night. After it was scoreless at halftime, Strom-Okimoto scored twice for the first […]

Football Throwbacks: Wyoming

By Brian McInnis on October 6, 2018

The Paniolo Trophy is up for grabs today between two old WAC foes. In that spirit, we’re taking today’s “Football Throwbacks” entry back into the thick of the WAC battles between the Rainbows and the Cowboys, a series that began in 1978 and was played every year through 1997 — a 20-year span. Wyoming has won six of the last seven meetings going back to 1993. The Cowboys are 2-1 against UH as Mountain West foes, with both of those wins […]

Wahine eyeing opportunity

By Brian McInnis on October 4, 2018

UPDATE: UH could not make the most of its opportunity, as it fell 3-2 to Long Beach State on Thursday night. For the moment, forget the Big West tournament. At no point in Hawaii soccer’s seven years in the BWC have the Rainbow Wahine been above .500 in conference play. That can change today, if UH (6-4-1, 1-1 BWC) can get past a team they’ve yet to defeat as a conference member — Long Beach State — in a 7 p.m. televised […]

Football Q&As: Ikem Okeke

By Brian McInnis on October 3, 2018

Hawaii safety Ikem Okeke has a good feeling. The former Bishop Gorman (Nev.) player bounced around several positions over his playing career but has settled in at free safety, where he’s been a mainstay of the Rainbow Warriors’ defense. UH (5-1, 2-0 Mountain West) has never been 3-0 in conference play since joining the MWC in 2012, but that can change this weekend with a strong showing against Wyoming (2-3, 0-1). Okeke gave some of his time after Wednesday’s morning […]

‘Bows sweat out Gym 1 session

By Brian McInnis on September 30, 2018

Saturday’s opening Hawaii basketball practice of the 2018-19 preseason was in the relative air-conditioned comfort of ‘Iolani School’s gymnasium. Sunday, it was back to the sweaty confines of UH Gym I, a place that is slated for a full renovation once work on Gym II is completed. That’s expected to be available in mid-December. By all accounts, the Rainbow Warriors went just as hard for about three hours Sunday’s as they did during Saturday’s closed session, which coach Eran Ganot […]

Football Throwbacks: San Jose State

By Brian McInnis on September 29, 2018

For this week’s entry in the “Football Throwbacks” series, we’re going ALL the way back to the time of leather helmets, the Fighting Deans and the old Honolulu Stadium. The year is 1936. The coach is Otto “Proc” Klum. And the Hawaii Fighting Deans, after a series of games against local alumni of McKinley and Kamehameha, were about to play their first collegiate opponent of the year. That opponent was San Jose State — today’s foe for UH as Mountain West […]

Wahine try to buck Big West struggles

By Brian McInnis on September 28, 2018

UPDATE: Well, here’s what happened to UH against UC Irvine on Friday night … It’s no secret that Big West Conference play has been difficult for the Hawaii soccer team. UH (5-3-1), picked to finish last of nine teams by the league’s coaches in the preseason, put together a solid nonconference record. Now Michele Nagamine and her young team find out if they can shock some people when it matters most. The Wahine open at defending regular-season champ UC Irvine […]

‘Bows do media day

By Brian McInnis on September 26, 2018

Wednesday was media day for the Hawaii men’s basketball team. Once the Los Angeles Clippers cleared out from their morning session of preseason training camp, UH’s 15-player roster and full coaching staff was on hand for its team picture in the Stan Sheriff Center. Players broke into smaller groups and individually for various media requests, including from yours truly while the excellent Jamm Aquino took photos to be used in our season preview coverage. (I’m in a support role; our […]

Court Sense