Today's Meeting / Mauia

The Advertiser writes that June Jones and WAC commissioner Karl Benson should be on hand at today's informational briefing.

Football coach June Jones and Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson are among the notables the University of Hawai'i has asked to appear at today's 2 p.m. Informational meeting at the capitol.
Rep. Jerry Chang, chairman of the state House Higher Education Committee, will chair the joint meeting of house and senate committees that have asked UH athletic director Herman Frazier to appear and discuss the "state" of UH athletics.

You can watch the briefing live on ʻOlelo channel 54, or maybe online at the ʻOlelo website if you click on the VIEWS - Channel 54 link on the right side of that page. Right now though, the video it links to looks like an archive rather than an actual stream. Maybe that's just my computer. Anyway, it starts in a few minutes.

UPDATE: It looks like Stephen Tsai will be liveblogging it. Woo hoo!

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And Reagan Mauia is profiled in the Miami Herald by Joseph Goodman.

Mauia, who says he ''dinked around in high school'' before dedicating himself to football, wasn't even recruited by Hawaii. While playing junior college football in California, he fell in love with Hawaii's program after watching a video entitled Polynesian Power, a documentary narrated by ''The Rock'' about football in the islands. After watching the film, Mauia, born in American Samoa but raised in Stockton, Calif., was inspired to reconnect with his Polynesian culture.

''I just built up the nerve to call Coach [June] Jones,'' Mauia said. ``I took it upon myself to walk onto the team. I told [Jones] not to give me a scholarship if I didn't earn it. I wanted to earn it.''

Right on. The article is actually more about Mauia and his Polynesian teammates, and the bond and culture they bring to the Dolphins. Good article.