Friday morning on the outfield portion of the old baseball field at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, you could find smiles and motivation mixed in equal parts with wide eyes and a hint of apprehension over what was about to occur.
The grins and earnest desires to jump in and get the learning process started were obvious on the faces of University of Hawaii-Manoa football coaches who found a last-minute opportunity available for a free no-pads clinic for local high school players.
Whiffs of self-doubt and uncertainty over what was about to happen was evident on 21 local players who gathered for the hastily assembled “big man” portion of the instructional camp, organized when UH coach Nick Rolovich asked and received a waiver from the NCAA to conduct an off-campus football camp at the sister school because of the ongoing lava breakouts from Kilauea.
“Pretty cool, huh?” said Rolovich as he walked onto the field. “We would be here every year — every year — if we could, but (the NCAA) they won’t let us have a camp unless it’s on campus.
“Honestly, that’s not much of an offer to a lot of these kids who may not come from families that can fly them around. But we’re here and we want to have some fun and help teach these kids some football.”
They did that from the very get-go, whether it was Kumukoa Adolpho, a 300-pound plus rising sophomore at Pahoa High School, to Frederico Garcia, soon to be a Honokaa High senior, both of whom had their moments.
“There’s only so much you can do in these kinds of (no football pads) drills,” said UH cornerbacks coach Abe Elimimian, “but on the other hand, we have a lot of younger kids here and yeah, there’s a lot to learn.”
In some ways, these summer “underwear camps,” with no physical contact, can still give young players some genuine insight on what they need to focus on to improve their skill set.
“These days, kids have a lot more access to information on the internet where they can look at drills and things that were unavailable to us just a few years ago,” said Elimimian, a former ‘Bows teammate of Rolovich, “but there’s still a difference in face-to-face instruction with coaches.”
No contact camps like Friday’s, can open a window for players who want to learn more, and when it gets to playing football on Friday nights in the fall, some of the techniques they learned here can help separate them and their skill sets — based on understanding techniques — from other players.
That’s because, even at the high school level, players who want to get college scholarships already know they have to be bigger and stronger. They can build up leg strength and perhaps improve their speed, they can work shoulders and backs, they can do yoga and make themselves more flexible, and all those things are helpful.
But do they know the proper technique to play their position?
“When we get them (as freshmen),” said Elimimian, “the area they need the most work is technique. They know how to lift and all that, but technique is always the key.”
Footballs are filling the air like never before with spread and fast-tempo offenses pressuring defenses in ways that have necessitated changes defensively. Those 260-pound middle linebackers from the past still get to play, but they have been moved to down linemen positions on the defensive front. Those bigger safeties from the past have been converted to hybrid linebackers, some playing inside to stop the run, others outside to chase down quarterbacks.
“It’s all about technique on the back end,” Elimimian said. “Get the elbows tight to the core, learn the different ways to apply leverage to a receiver; in terms of press technique, there are some different ways to do it, and you need to know them all.”
Insight for players paying attention was gained Friday in the mental part of the game, and that learning should carry through to the fall.
“The basic fundamentals (in the offensive line), haven’t changed too much,” said Hawaii’s veteran offensive line coach Mark Weber, “but the schemes have changed tremendously, there’s a lot more to grasp now.”
Weber worked with the big guys in the morning, teaching, observing, giving.
“You know what?” he said of the trip over for a day of free coaching with high school kids in shorts and t-shirts, “we love doing this. Every guy here loves doing this, it’s how we’re made.”
With any luck, Friday’s brief session might make a few local high school players envision a larger picture of the game and how they might see themselves fitting in.
If it happens once, it made the coaches’ trip worth the flight.