Receiver taking shot as run-oriented QB

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i coach June Jones gives Se'e Poumele a pointer during spring practice. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The coaches have described the move as being in "the experimental stages." If successful, Poumele would be used in run-option situations, similar to the role Shawn Withy-Allen served last season.

Poumele was a quarterback in high school and junior college. He still will remain as a wideout. Poumele, who redshirted last season, is a junior with two years of eligibility remaining.

He said his younger brother, Matuia "Mox" Poumele, will join UH in August if he meets the NCAA's academic requirements. Matuia Poumele, a 6-foot, 175-pound receiver at Oceanside (Calif.) High, received scholarship offers from Oregon and Fresno State. He can run 40 yards in 4.5 seconds.

Walk to remember: Nearly recovered from a broken left fibula suffered in last season's opening game, defensive tackle Lui Fuga is preparing for his most meaningful walk. That will come May 18, when he walks on stage to receive his college diploma during UH's spring commencement ceremony.

"Graduating," he said, "will be the best thing to ever happen to me."

It has been a long journey for Fuga, a 1998 Waipahu High graduate. He attended Nevada-Las Vegas' football training camp that summer, but did not enroll in school. Instead, he transferred to UH in January 1999.

He was a key member of the Warriors' O'ahu Bowl championship team in 1999, and played most of 2000 with an ailing shoulder. He received a medical redshirt in 2001 after undergoing surgery on both shoulders, then missed the final 13 games of last season after suffering the fibula injury.

"I've been running up the bills at UH," he said. "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."

Fuga is listed as a senior for the coming season, although he plans to appeal for a second medical hardship that would extend his UH career through the 2004 season. By then, he said, "I hope to be working on my master's degree."

On the move: Slotback Britton Komine yesterday competed at wideout for the first time since he was a senior at Maryknoll School.

"It wasn't that hard, but we didn't have too many plays," he said. "I have to keep playing. It'll get harder as we keep playing."

Komine filled the vacancy created by Justin Colbert, who completed his eligibility in December. Komine said he was told the move is "just for emergency purposes, but you never know. Honestly, I don't know which position I'll play in the fall."

Brown Faavae, who transferred from West Virginia last fall, worked out at strong safety yesterday, although there has been talk he eventually will move to weakside linebacker.

"Whatever helps the team," he said. "I'm trying to learn both positions."

As a redshirt last season, Faavae worked exclusively on the scout team. "It was more reading the cards," he said. "Now, it's putting them into play."

Pitching in: While many of the established starters are excused from competing in spring drills, they still were put to work. Such team leaders as quarterback Tim Chang and safety Hyrum Peters served as "coaches" in coach June Jones' newly implemented mentor program.

Chang said he is fully healed from a thumb injury that prevented him from playing in the second half of the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl. If there had been a game a month later, he said, "I would have played that Saturday. I would be on that field strapping it up."