UH-Fresno Previews / Haʻa

The UH Athletics Department has some game notes for the upcoming game, including this info about how the TV situation is being handled.

Television: Live statewide on Oceanic Cable Pay-Per-View digital channel 255 with Jim Leahey (PBP) and Jim Donovan (color). Call (808) 643-2100 statewide to order. Also delayed on KFVE (ch. 5) Sunday, Nov. 11, at 10:00 a.m. The game will also be shown live nationally on ESPN2, except in Hawai`i, with Ralph Wood (PBP) and Randy Rosenbloom (color) of the Bulldog Sports Network.

Bryant-Jon Anteola of the Fresno Bee has a game preview.

The Warriors (8-0, 5-0) have not lost since their second-to-last game of last season, to No. 24 Oregon State. Hawaii also throttled Fresno State 68-37 last year.

"We've got a big, big challenge ahead, no doubt," Fresno State coach Pat Hill said. "But you know, I like the way we're performing. We've won five of our last six games. We're in position where it's a big game.

"That's all you can ask for, playing in November and have the games mean something."

The Advertiser writes that there's only 9000 tickets left for the game.

Before Chawan gets futless again, here's his compilation of tonight's news from KITV's Robert Kekaula and KGMB's Liz Chun. Kekaula has news that Kealoha Pilares' knee injury might keep him out of the game this Saturday. Here's hoping it's not serious.



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Bill Palka of The Daily Orange, a Syracuse student paper, has an article about the Warriors' haʻa.

"Texas does the horn thing, and the Gators do their Gator chomp," Watson said. "The Hawaii Warriors, we do a ha'a. And that's how we get pumped up for the games."

Before the three players wrote the words and choreographed the moves, they gathered opinions from their teammates about what the ha'a meant to them. Once they had a team consensus, they wrote the lyrics for the ha'a. Galdeira said the motions are meant to be simple and flow with the words.

Those words are not so simple to learn. Many players from the mainland are not familiar with the Hawaiian language. UH head coach June Jones allowed the team to practice the ha'a before and after practice, saying that it added great cultural value.

"It's not whether you're Hawaiian or whether you're Polynesian or whether you're even from Hawaii," Galdeira said. "It doesn't even matter what kind of background you're from. Something people should know about coming to the University of Hawaii is that we have a culture that you're going to represent."

And in a Ka Leo article from last week, Kelli Miura writes about the origins of the football team's haʻa, and what it means to the players.

The ha‘a is a unique and special aspect about this year's team. Not only does it display the Hawaiian culture, but it has benefited the team in several ways.

"The combined effort of all us really resembles Hawaiian values," Watson said. "It's not just from one person; it's from the whole team. That's what makes it so personal for all of us."

The team also developed an identity and closer relationship through learning and performing the ha‘a.

"When you look around in football, there's a lot of teams out there that have certain types of rituals and things that they do," Brennan said. "This is something very specific to us. I really think it gives our team an identity and gives us a chance to really come closer."