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

Wahine hoops schedule released

By Brian McInnis on August 29, 2018

Well, this is new. For the first time in her seven-year Hawaii coaching career, Laura Beeman will open a regular season … at home. So it was revealed in the 2018-19 Hawaii women’s basketball schedule announced Wednesday. UH hosts Pepperdine on Nov. 6 — on the new, earlier NCAA-approved start date for all schools — at the Stan Sheriff Center, as part of a 16-game home schedule that includes Pac-12 powerhouse Stanford (Nov. 25). I am excited about our 2018-2019 schedule! This […]

Derby’s blast from the past

By Brian McInnis on August 28, 2018

A few years ago, former University of Hawaii football player Brian Derby put together a special tribute to days long gone. Derby, an offensive lineman at UH from 1981 to 1985, compiled a video slideshow of his era, broken up into five parts. Derby was coach at Damien in 2007 and has run camps for O-linemen for years. For a nostalgic experience of the Dick Tomey era of Rainbow Warrior football, players like Al and Niko Noga, Rich Miano and […]

Football Throwbacks: Colorado State

By Brian McInnis on August 25, 2018

We’re introducing a new series here at Hawaii Warrior World: Throwbacks. Starting with the 2018 UH football season, look for a new Throwback on game days about UH’s long-running (or in some cases, quite short) all-time series with that day’s opponent. It starts today with Colorado State (1:30 p.m. HST kickoff, CBS Sports Network). This series has not gone the way of the Rainbow Warriors for quite some time. The CSU Rams, a 17-point favorite today in Fort Collins, have […]

Nagamine saddened by tourney cancellation

By Brian McInnis on August 21, 2018

College soccer seasons go by pretty quickly. From a team’s perspective, you have to make every game count to put yourself in position for the postseason. From a spectator’s perspective, you have a finite number of chances to catch a team at home, especially when you consider that in the Big West play there are only four home games per team. Hawaii had two of its 11 home dates lopped off on Tuesday morning, as the Rainbow Wahine Soccer Invitational […]

Full 2018 soccer preview

By Brian McInnis on August 17, 2018

The Hawaii soccer team opens its season in challenging fashion tonight against No. 11 Texas A&M in the Outrigger Soccer Kickoff. UH (6-10-1, 1-6-1 Big West) finished last place last year and is pegged by the league’s coaches to do so again this year. UH is young, with 10 freshmen. And UH has a smaller roster of a available players than usual, in part because of some injuries from the spring. But it’s a clean slate. Sophomore defender Cristina Drossos […]

Breaking down the 2018-19 nonconference

By Brian McInnis on August 15, 2018

It’s here. On the heels of UCLA announcing that UH will play at Pauley Pavilion this season, UH was compelled to release its entire 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule. And, honestly, at this point there were only a couple of gaps to fill in. Well, those two remaining gaps (Mississippi Valley State and Alabama A&M) were pretty underwhelming. Then again, UCLA is UCLA, whether it’s home or away. Without further ado, a game-by-game look at the 2018-19 nonconference slate. Nov. 2: […]

A slice of Humboldt pie

By Brian McInnis on August 13, 2018

Back in the 2015-16 season, UH Hilo made a guest appearance in the round-robin format of the modern Rainbow Classic, playing Montana State, which word had it did not want to play Coastal Carolina, a late addition to the field. That was it for the Vulcans; they obliged for that one game vs. the MSU Bobcats and went back to the Big Island, although they returned to play Manoa in a stand-alone game the next month. Three years later, it […]

Leahey gets fitting sendoff

By Brian McInnis on August 12, 2018

The jokes were many, the laughter hearty, the tributes genuine. Legendary Hawaii sportscaster Jim Leahey, “the voice of UH athletics,” received a fitting retirement sendoff at The Willows restaurant on Sunday. Those who gave speeches (in person or remote) included his son, Kanoa, who MC’d, Pal Eldredge, Bobby Curran, Rick Blangiardi, Dick Tomey, Larry Beil and Neil Everett. Some of the former coaches in attendance were Dave Shoji, Vince Goo, Bob Wagner and Les Murakami. Current football coach Nick Rolovich […]

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