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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

UH sophomore receiver
Davone Bess

Video Inteview: Davone Bess

Davone Bess recorded seven 100-plus receiving games and five multiple-touchdown games last season. He averaged 12.6 yards per catch.

DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser


If you want to see good hands in action, just watch receiver Davone Bess. Every pass is caught with his mitts. The 5-foot-10, 187-pound sophomore latched on to a team-leading 89 passes for 1,124 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. His touchdown total led the Western Athletic Conference and set a UH freshman record. He was named WAC Freshman of the Year and a first-team WAC selection. He later earned Freshman All-America honors from CollegeFootball News.com, Rivals.com, The Sporting News and FWAA.


How did you become so proficient using your hands and not your body to catch the ball? Any special training? Also, what kind of goals have you set for yourself this season and what do you expect from the team?


"This year I think is more, like Sam (Satele) said, there's a lot of senior leaders who are stepping up and taking their roles. And I feel that it's my job to help them and for me to feed off them, bring this team together. Last year it was all about learning and everybody coming together as one and what not. We all have a year under our belt, we're a bit more comfortable. We just feel like if we go out and execute and perform at a high level, just do what we do best, I just think we'll have a pretty good season.

"As far as myself, I'm just here to be as productive as possible. Last year, like I said, was a learning experience for me and now I've got the year under my belt and I'm more comfortable. So now I'm to a point where I just want to take my game to another level. Whether it is catching the ball, running for a touchdown, just whatever I can to help this team win."

(On his catching proficiency) "In high school one of the main things my coach emphasized was catching the ball with your hands. Every time me or one of my receiver teammates caught the ball with our bodies he made us run two laps or do 50 push-ups right on the spot. After a while it just became natural. I go out every day with a couple of my other teammates and just catch the ball with the JUGS machine, every day. It's all about repetition, so the more repetition we get, the more natural it becomes. We probably catch, in the morning before practice, 125, 150 balls. And that's not including practice. During practice, who knows how many balls we catch."


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