LIHUE — University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich encouraged a young girl who was overwhelmed by the sea of young football enthusiasts, Wednesday at Vidinha Stadium.
“Don’t worry,” Rolovich said. “When I was five years old, I didn’t know a thing about football. We’re going to teach you football. You can even help me by holding my whistle.”
Rolovich and a staff of 14 associate coaches from the University of Hawaii program led a football camp for more than 200 youngsters aged from 5 through 13 years old at Vidinha Stadium.
The total number of players included participants from the county’s Summer Fun program as well as walk-ins.
“This is a summer fun outing,” said Melanie Okamoto of the county’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation that oversees the summer fun program which has more than 700 youngsters registered. “We have part of the kids on one side of the stadium. The kids going to the football camp will be walked over to the football field. The remainder will engage in Makahiki games, emphasizing the ancient traditional games.”
Football campers engaged in various drills in all aspects of the game — offense, defense, and even special teams — with an emphasis on health and wellness in the rapidly-rising heat from the sun that quickly burned away the protective cloud cover.
Rolovich also engaged the players’ input in treating everyone with respect and anti-bullying “rules” before breaking the field down into age groups for work at the different stations.
He emphasized the need for players to let coaches know when they need to hydrate, or go to the bathrooms where monitors were available to help the players stay hydrated and healthy in the hot sun despite a cry from one young person who said they were being tortured.
“This is good football,” said Lenny Rapozo, the Dept. of Parks and Recreation director. “I like the turnout. There is a young child who attended the Oahu camp, and came over to do the Kauai camp, too. We also have several people from the Maui Dept. of Parks and Recreation here to see how things are run because they’re interested in starting a program on their island.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
Tsst…do I look like I’m part of your town or county? Then it is not about me. Pick someone else. A lot of garbage news lately circulating around UH football. Why put a name there? 11,000 newspapers in print on the week days. This is not a lot. So you are wrong small mind. Any high school with a football team on Kaua’i.
Aloha Kakou,
I always forget to ask Mayor Bernard what position he played for the Miami Dolfins? Can someone inform us what position and what years he played?
Mahalo,
Charlie