Meet the staff
The Warriors have completed their coaching staff.
Interns
> Donovan Raiola — He’s a Wisconsin and Kamehameha Schools graduate who was a member of seven NFL teams during a six-year career. Raiola and Dean Chung have run clinics for o-linemen. He was a Kamehameha assistant coach the past two years. He will help o-line coach Chris Naeole.
> Feso’otai “Tai” Papalii — He’s a 2007 Kealakehe High graduate and former UH defensive back. His father, Sam Papalii, is a long-time college and prep coach. Papalii will help Chris “Demo” Demarest, who coordinates special teams.
> Lance Samuseva — The 1999 Farrington High graduate was a UH defensive tackle through the 2003 season. Samuseva works with d-line coach Lewis Powell.
Graduate Assistants
> Bo Montgomery — He’s a 2005 Kealakehe High graduate who was a defensive end at Weber State in 2005 and 2006 and a Warrior in 2008 and 2009. UH defensive coordinator Kevin Clune ran the defense when Montgomery was at Weber State. Montgomery was a recruiting assistant at Boise State last year. He will help Clune on defense, as well as have administrative duties in recruiting.
> Spencer Hagan — He played in 28 games as a receiver at California before suffering a knee injury in 2012. He retired as a player in September 2013, but remained with the Bears as a team manager last season. He will coach UH’s tight ends.
> Brad Vonnahme — He was the linebacker coach at Midland University (Fremont, Neb.) the past year. He also assisted with the strength program. Vonnahme worked under Clune as a defensive administrator at Utah State in 2009 and 2010.
> Derek Deardorff — He was an NAIA All-America wide receiver at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. The past three seasons, he was a GA at Tabor in Wichita, Kan. He will assist the offense.
one
2zin
3rd
I am surprised I didn’t see the word Utah once.
Last call for SDSU road game tickets-50 yd line behind our Warrior bench. tomkitaguchi@yahoo.com
Great Morning All!
Coach ’em up! GO WARRIORS!
GOOD MORNING HAWAII!
Support staff looking good!
Aloha All! Watch your liquor cabinets and daughters ( of legal age certainly) boola is back in town for 10 days….heheh!
Niner!
4. check the bio’s again. Vonnahme was at Utah in 09 and 10.
Eh boo, I thought there was a Mrs. boo? hehe
3-prong….like most of the guys here…it’s like going to Liberty House in the day–strict, look but no touch policy!!!
Good morning Tsaikos!
Welcome to the new staff. Hope you learn as much as you teach.
Boola – when’s the cattle call? 😆
klune was at utah state as did vonnahme.
Guud Morning Tsaikos…bootiful day.
Looooookking GUUUD!…smell da football in da air!…IMUA!
13 …jm, maybe sometime next week?? Oh, on ex-warrior news, Greg Salas had a strong mini-camp, and was specifically mentioned on the Jets website as someone they are looking to for contributions this season. ST, you gotta admit your Jets are looking pretty fancy on the O side of the ball??!!
Weese can kick the ball from far on FG’s and deep on kickoffs, during drills.
Five of the 6 FG’s he missed vs. Butler were during six OT periods. He also missed an extra point earlier in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qQxaDYjdkU
We need a kicker to put the ball in the end zone.
This is the man to do it apparently, unless polynesian paralysis sets in.
18. I hope one day someone follows my theory of kicking at least 1 surprise onside kick per game.
There is a study from 2000-2012 in the NFL that onside kicks that occurred before the 4th quarter, which were of element of surprise at the opposing teams weren’t expecting it, were recovered by the kicking team 47.5% of the time. I understand field possession is important but basically giving yourself a 50/50 chance to get the ball back at any given point of the game in a surprise scenario is huge when you can swing momentum. Worst case scenario is other team gets ball at mid field and you ask your D to get you a stop.
On top of that, if you build a reputation for being a risk taker, it would force the return team to bring their blockers up and potentially have to keep hands team out on all times which would affect the return game in my opinion.
Just my thoughts.
Ok, let’s do an onside kick the first game of the season. Jun Jones would…
Good Morning Gangeez! 😉
mctruck!!! Long time no see! Welcome back!
With the staff in place, it looks like most the ingrediments are ready for a great camp and awesome season.
GO WARRIORS!!!
June Jones also tried a fake punt deep in UH territory … against Alabama.
I like JJ but not everything worked, such as not starting Nate Ilaoa against Oregon State in 2006.
boolakanaka –
cc next week sounds good!
Yah, i like the fake punt idea. Tomey used it too ? But opponents are ready for Harding. Snap it to another man or something.
Tomey used to always do that swinging-gate move on extra points. Not sure if they ever ran a fake off it.
If I was demo I would run a bootleg option punt/pass or run in which ever direction harding rolls out to. Especially in short 4th down situations. Teams would have to play balanced and basically couldn’t rush anyone be cuz they wouldn’t know which direction he was going and they would have to cover the receivers. I would think that would be a mismatch since u have one guy fielding the punt. Would be like playing 11 on 10, unless teams just start bringing the returner down and playing regular d
Tomey was the worst special teams coach we’ve ever had.
I think that Bob Wagner was the special teams coach during Dick Tomey’s regime.
Tomey liked the muddle huddle. UH should try that, but it may be too many trick plays to learn. I looked for descriptions of that play, but it’s pretty muddling.
Special Teams under coach Demo has been a consistent & solid phase of Warrior football, Demo’s reputation as a meticulous, demanding, tough love type of coach, keeps special teamers focused and on their toes. Players learn to understand the commitment to execution needed to be a special teamer, practice is intense & these guys learn to “buy in, respect & cherish the process” ego is left in the Lockerroom, it’s all about preparing to succeed.
30. OSD: Inyo was referring to Mac’s last year in 2011, when Tomey was the special teams coach.
Tomey loved gadget plays–a variation of the fumble-rooskie, being his fav. Wags was originally his DB coach, then later became his special teams and ilb coach.
Tomeys special teams in 2011 was the reason mac was fired. How many games did we lose cuz of missed field goals or something stupid on special teams? ?
It’s rather ironic and puzzling struggled as much with special teams position, as in my era the special teams played an integral part of his success. Blocked field goals and punts, were the expected norm. I think, Mike Akiu, actually, broke the leg of the Utah kicker twice….in consecutive seasons.
33 – NotNasti: Agree, that was painful to watch in 2011. Each PAT/FG/KO/Punt attempt was an adventure under Tomey.
Now, I’m actually very curious on where Mike ranked in getting to “the punt blocking spot”, but he was without a doubt the quickest guy I have ever seen, up close, within 10-15 yards–Bruddha was in full tilt on about his 3rd step.
Didn’t the NCAA outlaw the fumblerooskie? I remember Nebraska running it with Dean Steinkuhler. UH also ran it with Doug Vaioleti in the early 90s. Always enjoyed watching the big boys run with the ball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRgXCB_sQE
#36: Tomey was a good HC & had good Special teams coaches over time: Rich Ellerson, Larry Mac Duff, Wagner during Successful early to mid 80s, defense was also solid under Tomey, offense not as solid although had talent.
35.
One of Mac’s problems was that he got too conservative when they had the lead. Instead of continuing the same offensive push that got them the lead, they “took the pedal off the gas” and then the other team caught up. I remember that’s how they lost to San Jose State at home that one year and also to Utah State. Special teams really hurt that game they got smashed @ UNLV
Good luck to Joey Iosefa – http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20140717_Iosefa_on_watch_list_for_top_running_back_award.html
Under Jones the offense was pretty much the same regardless of the score. Probably why they had a lot of huge lop sided wins esp in 2006 and 2007.
lost my kid… oh – there he is!
40-yes, you hit that on the head. There was a bunch of talent, Sapolu, Edgar, Allen, Hall, Mills, Cherry, Fa’aola, Quarles, Tolumu, Murray…etc.(all of them played on Sundays) but it was sort of disjointed. The teams by and large were lead by the D and special teams, I will say this, they played with a lot of swagger….but, I’m biased.
Michele Wie finished at +3, 11 strokes off the leader at 62. She bogeyed her last 3 holes. 🙁
The late John Wilbur was also an assistant with an “edge” for Special Teams during the Tomey years. Any of guys from the era know what John contributed.
Good morning everyone!
Welcome aboard to all the interns and graduate assistants!
Dick Tomey was a defensive genius.
June Jones was an offensive guru out to prove the Run & Shoot (he did!)
McMackin was a defensive genius, but saw the RnS under JJ and kept it.
Norm Chow is from the offensive side (QB guru)… but like JJ, needs to assemble the OL and receivers with a great QB. Is this the year?
If I’m not mistaken, he coached through the 80s til 84-85…?
50!
Good afternoon, folks.
Welcome to the new assistants, interns, Warriors.
The late John Wilbur used to come to practice, leaning on his bicycle as if it were a walker, and yell at JJ’s o-linemen and special team players. But Wilbur knew his stuff. And he helped me meet Hunter S. Thompson and Sean Penn.
Remember that Japanese-American actor who used Eastern-medical treatments on Travis LaBoy?
Ah, practices used to be entertaining.
ST almost as entertaining as team film study….and a mysterious flying old school film projector… let’s just say Tomey could get riled, back in the day.
Among the people who have attended UH football practices: Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Walter Payton, James Lofton, Chris Mortensen, Steve Bartkowski, Byron Leftwich, Pat Hill, The Braddahs …
Tomey once got pissed and threw a Coke can at our sports editor (Rick Woodson).
What a waste of a good can of Coke.
Sometimes in green zone we should use 4 downs to get the first
Down Seems most times the opponent scores anyway.
I miss the r n shoot.
I miss JJ
Stephen,
Remember when Rudy came to practice..
One of my favorite plays was in 2012. Sean Schroeder fakes an injury. He runs toward the sideline, and then Joey Iosefa throws a pass to Billy Ray Stutzmann for 50 yards.
BigWave:
That was sort of surreal to see Rudy.
Mack was supposed to bring The Rock and Ray Lewis. He knew both from his Miami days. But, alas …
As much as we loved the run n shoot under Jones, eventually the system was going to change. JJ couldn’t be the coach forever so eventually a new coach would have come in at some point and change the system. The same with Mack, even if he continued the success after the 2010 season, eventually he would have stepped down to retirement or whatever reason and someone else would come in. So unless we continuously find coaches that operate on the run n shoot, we should get used to something else.
ST….if film projection was an Olympic sport, for sure Tomey would at least qualify for the Olympic trials. As everyone knows, he was really into effort, and would show these older films from UCLA when they played SC…he would work himself into a frenzy, talking about Charles White, Heisman trophy winner, national championship…blah, blah blah, and then repeat over and over, of a UCLA walk on player stripping the ball from him.
Repeating about who wanted it more….walking-on v heisman winner…..the man could have been a preacher.
People grumble about UH letting Rick Pitino get away. What about Dom Capers, who was the secondary coach back in the 70s under Larry Price?
ST, Although not in season, my biggest thrill was working out with Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright in the summer, I think 83…. And then seeing them at Red Lions later that same night, and then, them buying my date and I, a round of drinks….she was like “”who the hell are you???! My head barely fit through the door, leaving the place that night….and yes, boola got lucky that night
Red Lion?
I used to be a busboy there. I also worked as the Red Lion on occasion. I would walk around Waikiki, in costume, and say to women: “I’d be a lion if I said you were beautiful.”
Years later, I realized, hey, I don’t think that pun made sense.
#70 shoulda been; I’d be a lion if you were “not beautiful”. Maybe you read the wrong script.
ST…are there beach workouts this week?
ST–Red Lion on Kuhio was the spot back in the day. Whenever I think about that place, I picture Donald Creighton (McKinley) played OG for us, doing a mean cabbage patch….sole could dance.
For me back in 73 was Lee Afuvai and the Point After.
58: Stephen, actually, if memory serves, it was a paper cup of punch or water, followed by hold-me-back posturing (and yes, rest his soul, Woodson probably deserved it).
Oh, I almost thought you meant Anthony Woodsen, who was built like the black Hercules …
Boolakanaka:
I think they’re done with beach workouts for the summer. Training camp opens two weeks from tomorrow.
Pono, auwe, you shouldn’t have pointed that out to me. Now I have to refer to the Warriors, as the “Hawaii Utes.”
Raiola is pretty immature, not sure he is a good example to have around these college kids.
77. I was wrong. ST had a typo and it should be Utah State. Clune was never at Utah.
Back in the good ol’ days, wasn’t fasting (before a blood test) only supposed to be for eight hours?
How come it’s 14 hours now?
you must be hungry.
Diagnostic Laboratories require you fast 12 hours. But you can drink water. So not so bad.
Pono, I am just glad that Norm Chow is bringing in Interns and a GA that were former Warriors.
#54…Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa
Hiroyuki-Tagawa acted in a lot of action movies like mortal kombat but also a very poignant movie about the dog Hachie.
#68, boola, your wife knows that story? lol.
808:
That’s the guy.
Thanks.
Al:
I’m hungry!
Starvin’ like Marvin.
I guess the doc wants angry blood.