Miano steps up to the mic
The old joke in our former news room was that when it came to interview subjects, Rich Miano was worth five Kafentzis brothers and a Lyndell Jones.
Miano is smart, funny, glib and thoughtful — useful traits for his new assignment as color analyst for OC Sports’ telecasts of UH football games. Because of scheduling conflicts, Dick Tomey, who handled that position last year, will be only available for at least two UH games as an analyst.
Miano said he is “excited” to be part of the telecasts, noting, “I can continue to talk and analyze football. (The sport) has been good to me my whole life.”
Miano’s football circle appeared completed when Kaiser won the Division II state championship last season — 34 years after helping the Cougars win the 1979 Oahu Prep Bowl. In between, Miano played at UH, accrued 11 seasons in the NFL, then coached the Warriors for 13 years. He was the Warriors’ head coach — on an interim basis — for 17 days in December 2011.
He resigned as Kaiser’s coach in April to work as safety manager for Hawaii Stevedores. Last month, he received a call of inquiry from Dan Schmidt, OC Sports’ general manager and executive producer. Typical of Miano’s shark-like-move-or-die pace, he was hiking Mariner’s Ridge when his cell rang.
Despite not being rehired to UH’s staff two years ago, Miano retained his Letter Winners’ membership. “I’ll always bleed green,” he said.
Still, he is expected to provide objective critiques. UH head coach Norm Chow and athletic director Ben Jay both approved Miano’s hiring.
Of his new broadcast cohort, play-by-play announcer Robert Kekaula said: “Some people have passion about some things they do. Rich has passion about everything he does, and I love that.”
Congratulations to Rich. Warrior for life.
Elua!
Coach Miano was made for the mic. Congratz to him on his new assignment.
Guessing that Rich won’t be continuing to do the Sunday “Inside The Huddle” TV show to recap the weekend’s UH football game with Mike Cherry and Mark Carpenter…..
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/category/270219/inside-the-huddle
And congratz to Kanoa Leahey!
http://www.staradvertiser.com/sportspremium/20140713__Kanoa_Leahey_is_the_new_voice_of_Wahine_volleyball.html?id=266920561
UH didn’t make Uluave’s shortlist of top 5 schools……which currently are Oregon, Texas Tech, UCLA, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin.
http://hshawaii.scout.com/story/1420621-texas-tech-makes-uluave-s-top-5?s=370
My guess is that Uluave will follow either Fehoko to Texas Tech…..or Ulu-Perry to UCLA.
Good Morning Kapakahi, Pono and Stephen Tsai.
Are you officially not on vacation Mr. Tsai?
GOOD MORNING HAWAII!
#3 kapakahi – really enjoyed hearing Rich’s analysis of the game “Inside the Huddle”.
DPK
One more week of vacation.
Since unlikely to land any “Hawaii freaks” in 2015 recruiting class, hopefully UH’s Utah connections (through Chow, Clune, Matthews, Powell, Wynn) can help land a few of these Utah “freaks”…..
http://utah.scout.com/story/1420206-the-beehive-state-freak-list?s=365
See… somebody notices!
Good Morning Judge Mui!
My goal is to see how many times I can mention Lyndell Jones in the next week.
He was one of my favorite players.
Former Warrior Mike Washington “engages” with an over zealous arena football fan:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2128121-fan-at-arena-football-game-gets-destroyed-by-player-after-reaching-for-ball?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national
ST–LJ made cornrows infamous, before it was even a popular term. The two guys that followed him, were equally tight corners: Daryl “reb” Williams, and Vernon Gearing.
Are you talking about THE Lyndell Jones, Stephen?
leron – I was watching that game yesterday. Washington is doing a great job at Spokane… and that collision could have hurt him as well as the fan.
Thanks for the link, kapakahi – “freaks” indeed! How does TJ Fehoko end up on their list?
One name that really piqued my interest was QB Austin Kafentzis:
“The Jordan High School quarterback is a phenomenal athlete. Kafentzis has racked up over 140 touchdowns through his junior year and nearly 14,000 total yards. At nearly 6-1 200 pounds, he can squat 505 pounds, bench 340 pounds, and hang clean 315.”
Things that make you go hmmm…
DPK…Kyle’s son. UH was never really in the running…early on wanted to go to a major conference. Further, our coaching situation and AD situation were in transition, so he made a fairly early commit to WIS. As with most of the K boys, a nice package of speed, strength, and applied athleticism.
boola –
Just puttin it out there to the Universe. 😉
I think I’m in a time warp.
I’ve been watching music videos from the 1980s on You Tube all morning.
By the way, 18 more days until the start of training camp.
Congrats Coach Miano! Great move for OC. Miano and Kekaula together = more fun for everyone. Can’t wait to hear them rip it up. Note: Norm! Norm! Norm! It’s Higgins! Higgins! Higgins! Schroeder is a great senior backup, and he is nowhere near the player Tyler Gronke was, so no shame in backing up as a senior. With the murderers row UH faces right out of the blocks, and the number of road games at end of season, someone will need a virtually interchangeable backup. Aloha!
Not a fan of Miano when he steered a good football player away from UH.
Hoping UH recruiters work some magic in landing Elu Aydon and Dillon Faamatau.
Anyone else planning on going to the UH road game at San Diego St. on Oct. 18; 2 years ago we had almost 200 Hawaii fans sitting behind our Warrior bench mostly between the 50 & 20 yard line. Tickets go on sale this July 21. If interested in joining our group this year, email me at: tomkitaguchi@yahoo.com
Good choice on Kanoa. Now how about replacing loquacious LS with NK on WBB. Replace the audio on OC16 in favor of ESPN 1420.
should miano make a critical comment about the team or coaching, chow will get after him or have UH fire him. chow’s teams make too many mistakes, that is why they cannot win, very bad coaching – miano will be ojective.
Not a fan of Miano!
Self promoter.Remember
many ill advised comments
When Mac was let go!
RM should be a good hire for OC, UH games: He has gift of gab, has many years of playing & coaching experience, assistant & HC, accustomed to being in public talking football, I believe he will be a coach in the booth and communicate his observations in an objective manner. I’m not a RM fan but I believe he will be a good fit with Kekaula.
I thought that Mariners Ridge was close to all hikers? 🙂
I am biased, but no one aside from from Shoji, has both an institutional and street creed than Miano–period. No other player in the entire UH athletic history has a historical body of work as Rich. From an all-state player at Kaiser, coming up as a walk-on, and eventual all-WAC player, and a double digit career in both the pros and as a coach for UH…through thick and thin, good and bad, he was there—you can’t knock a bruddha for that—and while he would have liked to be the head guy, that was not to be–everyone is human.
Is he perfect? No, but again, no one is….!! But, has he shown the type of loyalty that is rarely seen in a period of time where bouncing around is the norm. Make no mistake about his type of skill set which could have easily gone to the highest bidder. I know for a fact, he has had both NFL and upper division college coaching offers. No can dispute he is a Warrior for life, cause you know what, he did it in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s–who can say that….??? Rich good for you–imua bruddha!!!
as I was hanging the laundry, couple planes passed nearly directly overhead
during night time arrivals, including early morning, they tend to be over Waimanalo to Hawaii Kai and very little to see
guess the daylight hours airlines want to or maybe don’t realize how tourists react when the see Oahu/Hawaii for the first time and the excitement it creates
have you ever want to look out or a window after the announcement is made that the plane is close to landing – I still do!
after OCS and jump school – I was headed home before reporting to Ft Knox for officers school – we had to travel in uniform to receive the military reduce fare – it was $55 from Atlanta to Hawaii – she asked me if this was my first to trip to Hawaii – I was stunned because it really was my first trip and I told her I was coming home.
I called this last year. Just saying…
agree with #29 boolakanaka – Miano has the loyalty of a samurai.
So glad Chow and Ben approved of Miano’s hiring because Rich will not hold back his criticism if needed. Good hire, during Tomey’s absence.
My question is why the heck they needed Chow and Jay’s approval to hire Miano? OC sports is not part of UH//////
#18. ST,
Once again……any update on JC CB transfers Cesar Fermin (Moorpark JC) and Jamal Mayo (Laney JC)?
Don’t know what it is but…..there is definitely a pattern of JC DB signees (Fields, Hill, Turner) not qualifying……even some (Fields & Turner) actually reported to UH…..along with other JC signees (Brown, Polk, Washington) who didn’t make it to UH……so can’t help but wonder about Fermin and Mayo too.
Part of the contract states the AD has final approval on analyst hiring.
🙁
18 more days!? No way! Yes!
I wonder if KHNL/KGMB/KFVE would have been willing to give UH veto power for analyst hirings … nice other background info from Ferd Lewis in Honolulu Star-Advertiser …
U. of Hawaii Opts to Extend Pay-Per-View TV Rights Deal
KHNL/KGMB, which has a “shared services agreement” with KFVE, had sought an opportunity to make a proposal. “We are extremely disappointed and saddened to hear this news as Hawaii News Now and KFVE would have been proud and honored to have submitted an alternative proposal for the University of Hawaii to consider,” Blangiardi said in a statement.
“We believe we could have provided a meaningful alternative to Oceanic Cable, which unfortunately only reaches paid subscribers, as opposed to the entire state,” Blangiardi said. “We were prepared to make the University of Hawaii an unprecedented bid for the broadcast rights, and were looking forward to the elimination of the pay-per-view concept and providing all of UH sports, including both home and away games, free of additional charges to the people of Hawaii.”
They didn’t get the contract so it makes no difference.
RE: #39
I like and respect Rick Blangiardi and he is often credible. But, in the post-mortem rumblings, I never heard what the guaranteed money amount the UH would receive under his proposal. Obviously the AD cannot gamble if Oceanic’s $2.3M (???) in hand is not matched and guaranteed. But a fair hearing of all proposals would have been interesting.
#41 … Ferd Lewis’ article said the Oceanic guaranteed amount started at $2.3M/yr and rose to $2.6M/yr. I may have misinterpreted the article, but it sounded like no other bids were sought by UH. I agree it would have been interesting to see multiple proposals. The free TV option advertises the brand to a wide audience, but how much value that would add to the athletic departments bottom line would seem a challenge to quantify.
Guud Evening Tsaikos…bootiful evening.
“We were prepared to make the University of Hawaii an unprecedented bid for the broadcast rights, and were looking forward to the elimination of the pay-per-view concept and providing all of UH sports, including both home and away games, free of additional charges to the people of Hawaii.”….seems they were prepared but never made a bid…or never given a chance to make a bid?…huh?..
anyhoo, met up with a Leonard Peters on the steps of the “swinging bridge”…seems he is related to THE Leonard Peters…his wife and son…son was so frightened to cross the bridge but sucked it up and on the way back was leading mom and dad over….the making of a Warrior…..was nice to meet up with the family.
Since it’s a down year for RBs among the top local 2015 HS prospects (2016 Class will have Malepeai & Taulaupapa), hopefully the UH coaches taking a look at the Utah RB prospects…..
http://recruiting.scout.com/2/1420762.html
At least we won’t have to worry about Miano endlessly talking about the wrong team during UH telecasts.
35… There’re reasons why JC guys are at JC…
A. They have talent but poor students
B. They are undersized throughout high school (get overlooked by D1 recruits), but then hit a growth spurt later
C. Guys who don’t have much playing time in HS via injury or behind a star player most of HS.
A is the biggest reason.
I personally lost respect for Rick B. They were asked informally to come up with a bid and didn’t come close to OC16’s cash proposal. Of course he blew a gasket when UH renewed with OC 16 and said he was going to sue. Think it was last month that word from Rick said they were going to move on and no suit would be filed. All that commotion for nothing Rick…