University of Hawai'i defensive end John Fonoti is finally living up to his football promise — an improvement rooted in the promise he made to himself.

"Everything I do," Fonoti said, "is for my mom. She's my motivation. She's my inspiration."

It is why when the Warriors practice under an unforgiving sun, the good son thinks of Fenuivao Fonoti, who is a two-time cancer survivor.

"I'm trying to be strong for her," John Fonoti said. "I hope she'll be OK. She's fighting it all. She's acting like nothing's happened."

Fonoti said his family moved to Hawai'i in 1992 after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She survived that. But in January 2005, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Fonoti said he learned of her illness two weeks before football prospects were allowed to sign national letters of intent.

"That's why I came over here (to UH) — because of my mom and (assistant) coach Ron (Lee)," Fonoti said. "He kept bugging me."

Fonoti was the wedge-buster on the kick-coverage unit as a freshman in 2005.

But last year Fonoti was forced to serve an academic redshirt after his grade-point average slipped below the team-mandated minimum. Fonoti remained on scholarship and was allowed to attend classes, but he was prohibited from practicing or participating in team meetings.

Fonoti and safety B.J. Fruean, who also was an academic redshirt, became friends. They trained together and were part of the same study group.

"We were in the same boat," Fruean said.

Fruean and other teammates, such as defensive tackle Michael Lafaele, offered support to Fonoti.

"We wanted to make sure he took care of his mom," Fruean said. "This is Hawai'i. Family comes first."

Lafaele added: "Whenever he needed a ride, we gave him one. We gave him moral support. We talked to him, made sure he went to class and did things academically."

Fonoti did well enough to be reinstated to the team.

"I tried to prove myself," Fonoti said. "When I messed up in school, everybody thought I was a failure. I'm glad to be back. I'm doing it for my mom."

Fonoti has impressed the coaches with his quickness and aggressiveness. Yesterday, he served as wedge-blocker on kick returns. He caught Briton Forester's pooch kick.

During one-on-one drills between offensive and defensive linemen, Fonoti twice threw a blocker to the ground.

"It doesn't seem like he ever left, not by the way he's been performing in practice," said George Lumpkin, who coaches the defensive ends. "He's working hard and doing what we ask him to do. He loves the game, loves to hit. He does have a motor. He plays hard. He picks up things pretty quick."

Fonoti said he looks forward to tomorrow's first day of the fall semester.

"I thank coach (June) Jones for the opportunity to come back to the team, to get my life straight," Fonoti said. "I want to thank my school mentors, the coaches, the staff. They were there for me. I don't want to let them down."

UH TAKES TO STADIUM

Yesterday's practice was the Warriors' first at Aloha Stadium this summer.

The highlight was a 40-play scrimmage.

Colt Brennan was the quarterback for the first 11 plays. He completed 7 of 9 passes for 43 yards. Two shovel passes were dropped; two completions resulted in negative yardage.

Two first-year Warriors, running backs Kealoha Pilares and Leon Wright-Jackson, had difficulty finding openings against a blitzing defense that appeared to have decoded the offensive playbook.

"You could hear (the defense) screaming 'run,' " Pilares said. "I got whacked a couple of times by the big boys. But it's good to be out here."

Wright-Jackson was an All-American at Pasco (Wash.) High in 2004. He played at Nebraska in 2005, then attended a junior college but did not play football last season.

"I needed the contact," Wright-Jackson said. "I had a year off. It felt really good to get hit. I wanted to get out there to see how fast everybody was moving."

Last year, running back Nate Ilaoa gained more than 500 yards on shuffle plays, in which he would fake a block then cut laterally to catch a shovel pass.

"We're going to get it done," Wright-Jackson said of that play. "We'll be ready by (the Sept. 1 season opener against) Northern Colorado."

Later, against the third-string defense, Inoke Funaki threw 70-yard scoring passes to Michael Washington and C.J. Hawthorne. Inoke missed a third when he underthrew Hawthorne.

Even on the scoring pass to Washington, Funaki said, "I underthrew it. Mike was open, but I kind of babied it instead of putting it out there. I had some good plays, but I want to focus on the mistakes so I can get better."

Dan Kelly was not bothered by the new rule in which the kickoff tee is placed on the 30 — 5 yards back from previous seasons.

Both of his kickoffs landed 3 yards deep in the end zone. He said he did not kick either with full force.

"They were working on kickoff returns," Kelly said. "I didn't get everything into it. I kind of popped them. I wasn't going full blast."

Besides, Kelly said, his focus is on the height of kickoffs and not necessarily the distance.

"If you kick it 75 yards, but your hang time is 3.5 (seconds), it'll get returned every time," Kelly said.

He said his goal is to have a hang time of better than 4.0 seconds. He said he has been averaging 4.2 seconds of hang time during practices.

"The amount of work you put in here is what you get in the game," Kelly said.

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.