UH seeks answers in seclusion
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — It is 6:35 a.m. when the sun peeks over the horizon and begins to illuminate the nearby San Gabriel Mountains with the promise of another 90-degree day.
Its beauty, however, is only briefly noted here at what Chad Kapanui and some of the members of the University of Hawai'i football team have come to call their "Camp Redemption."
In the rising foothills, seven miles above their hotel in Ontario, Calif., the Warriors labor daily on the Grigsby Stadium field of Chaffey College, their home away from home this week in preparation for Friday night's game at Nevada-Las Vegas.
Amid the wineries and the encroaching tract homes, the Warriors take the practice field while the dew is still on the grass, and before the smog obscures the mountains, secluding themselves to find the answers to what went wrong at Southern California on Saturday and put in their game plan for their ESPN2 appearance against the Rebels.
This is where they have come to put toil behind their resolve to beat UNLV and not to come home from the road trip 0-2.
"This is all about business, not a vacation," senior offensive lineman Shayne Kajioka and the veterans remind the squad sternly at the beginning of practice.
Indeed, with a tightly controlled daily schedule that quarterback Tim Chang likens to "lock down" the Warriors get on the bus before 6:30 a.m. and return to the hotel after 9:30 a.m. There are a series of team meetings with coaches and study halls with an academic counselor, but scant time for venturing outside before the nightly curfew.
"There's a lot of discipline and order and focusing on the job ahead," said running back John West.
What the Warriors have glimpsed of the outside world since their few hours of freedom Sunday has come from the windows of the buses that haul them to practice.
Faced with their first back-to-back non-conference road games since 1973, the Warriors had originally planned to return home after the USC game. But when UNLV moved the game to accommodate ESPN, "it didn't make much sense to be flying back and forth," athletic director Herman Frazier said.
And mindful of the allures and distractions of a week in either Los Angeles or Las Vegas, coach June Jones opted to pitch camp here, where the Warriors had overnighted before last year's win at Fresno State, and near where their Aloha Airlines charter will wait to take them to Las Vegas Thursday evening.
"It is tough going this week," said defensive end Kevin Jackson. "But if that's what the coaches think is gonna take to be focused and win, then we're all for it."
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044
