Quickly discouraged, Waipahu's Sherie Naleimaile figured she'd give up playing Pigskin Picks.

"What's the use I'm not going to win," said Naleimaile, who just started playing this year.

But then her mom stepped in.

"She said, 'You have nothing to lose. Just try it.' "

So Naleimaile did and now she'll be taking her first trip to the Mainland.

Naleimaile correctly picked the winners of 14 of 15 games and was selected as the winner of last week's Pigskin Picks contest. The 23-year-old Pearl Harbor worker wins a trip for two to Las Vegas and $500.

Naleimaile confesses that she has no strategy.

"I watch UH football, that's it," she said. "Some of the teams I'm familiar with (so) I go with them. For the ones I never heard of, I would just check (pick) anything."

Her upset picks of Oregon State over Cal and the Minnesota Vikings over Chicago were "guesses, so to speak."

While Naleimaile "was pessimistic" about winning, her mother, Sheryl, was the opposite.

Sunday night, Sheryl decided to charge her cell phone in anticipation of KSSK radio station calling the house the next day to announce the winner.

"She said, 'Why you charging your phone?' " Sheryl said. "Because KSSK is going to call tomorrow."

Naleimaile now says, "Yeah, mother knows best ... although I don't like it when she's right."