HONOLULU — University of Hawai‘i head football coach Greg McMackin announced the Warriors’ 2009 recruiting class Wednesday at a press conference at the Diamond Head Hospitality Room in the Stan Sheriff Center. McMackin and his coaching staff secured commitments from
HONOLULU — University of Hawai‘i head football coach Greg McMackin announced the Warriors’ 2009 recruiting class Wednesday at a press conference at the Diamond Head Hospitality Room in the Stan Sheriff Center. McMackin and his coaching staff secured commitments from 29 junior college and high school standouts for the upcoming season.
“We’re excited about our class this year, we’ve got a large class,” McMackin said. “The coaches again worked very hard for a year recruiting these guys. You really don’t know how guys play for you until they get on the field between the white lines. So, I don’t ever go out and say this is the greatest class, or this is going to be the greatest class ever. I know it’s a quality class, guys want to go to school and get their degrees. I’ve been in every home of the players we’ve recruited and met their parents, great families and good people.”
Of the 29 signees, 14 are offensive players and 15 are on the defensive side of the ball. A total of 20 are from high schools and nine are from the junior college ranks. Eleven of the 20 high school signees are from Hawai‘i high schools and all were selected to the all-state teams, including safeties Kamalani Alo and Aulola Tonga from perennial state powerhouse Kahuku High School.
“The other thing that we did, as always, is we used Hawai‘i as our base,” McMackin said. “We had 12 players from the state of Hawai‘i and from Samoa, so we want to keep our good Hawaiian players home, and we’ve done that the last couple of years.”
With the loss of six players including all four starters, the defensive secondary was one of the staff’s biggest needs and they filled those holes with eight signees. The Warriors also lost eight part-time or full-time starters between the defensive line and linebacker positions and signed seven to replace them.
On offense, the Warriors lost three starters on the offensive line and two receivers. Among the 14 offensive signees, four are wide receivers and four are offensive lineman. In addition, Hawai‘i signed three freshman quarterbacks — David Graves, a highly recruited signal caller from Folsom, Calif., Corey Nielsen, one of California’s leading passers out of Gahr High School, and Cayman Schutter, who led Punahou School to its first state high school football championship.
Hawai‘i won recruiting battles with numerous Bowl Championship Subdivision programs. Silverado High School’s T.J. Alofipo turned down offers from nearly every Pac-10 school in addition to Colorado, BYU, Boise State and Fresno State. Kapolei High’s Chad Lopati spurred offers from Colorado, California, and Oregon State, while Douglass (Okla.) High’s Destin Stewart picked UH over Missouri and Tulsa.
Six student-athletes are already enrolled as mid-year transfers, which includes Saint Louis School’s Billy Ray Stutzmann, brother of current UH graduate assistant and former Warrior Craig Stutzmann.
