Signing Day Wrap-Ups, Update: Super Games vid

Jason Kaneshiro and Paul Honda write about Hawaii's new recruiting class. Here's an excerpt about Paipai Falemalu and Alema Tachibana:

The commitments from Falemalu and Tachibana broke new ground for a rebuilt bridge between local powerhouse Kahuku and the University of Hawaii.

While the two entities never officially cut ties in recent years, the recent fall season and ensuing offseason marked renewed contact. That face-to-face connection, which did not exist on the Kahuku campus in the 2006 season, netted two outstanding Red Raiders linebackers.

Tachibana hopes to gain 15 to 20 pounds by fall camp, where UH will switch him to defensive end. Both players turned down other offers to stay home, even though their parents wanted them to play college football on the continent. Tachibana spurned Utah by choosing the Warriors.

"I always wanted to play for UH," Tachibana said. "I'm happy."

Stephen Tsai talks to a couple of the new Warriors.

"What can I say? It's Hawai'i," Alexander said. "I love the offense. That's a big part of why I decided to go there."

The next-to-last signing came from wideout Mike Tinoco of Saddleback Community College. He had waited for his parents to co-sign.

"I am a Warrior," Tinoco said. "That's pretty sweet."

The article details the need for a "stealth courtship" of Greg Alexander:

Noticing that several schools appeared to chase players the Warriors were recruiting, UH coaches took special care to hide Alexander's name from recruiting services and message boards.

Nice. Tsai also writes that former UH linebacker Chris Brown is re-joining UH as a student manager, and has a few details about the start of the "Super Games."

Yesterday, the teams competed in arm-wrestling and wall sitting, in which a participant is in a sitting position, with his back square against the wall, as if he is on an imaginary chair. A 45-pound plate is placed on the lap.

Backup linebacker R.J. Kiesel-Kauhane, who held the sitting position for nearly 5 minutes, won one competition.

"I sit on the bench all of the time," Kiesel-Kauhane said. "It comes natural. Nah, it takes strong legs and a strong heart."

UPDATE: Tombo forgot to include video from the great Princess Leila covering the Super games. The guys are having a blast. It'll definitely bring them all closer together.

Here are two articles covering NLI Day at Honolulu Hale from Paul Honda and Stanley Lee. And judging from Honda's article, seems like UH had some interest from Shiloah Te'o, but perhaps the timing was off.

All-State first-team safety Shiloah Te'o stuck to his early oral commitment and signed with BYU, which backed off its plan to switch him to linebacker. Looking back, Te'o had just one regret.

"It's my fault. UH liked me," he said of a recent visit to Manoa. By then, UH had given out its scholarship offers and was no longer a viable option.

Even though Shiloah signed with BYU, it seems like UH wouldn't have had the slightest chance at him (or Paipai and Alema for that matter) if it wasn't for Greg McMackin and his coaching staff. With just three weeks to put this class together, they did a phenomenal job of recruiting, meeting with high school coaches and athletic directors, traveling to the mainland, visiting players in their homes, and making a good impression all around. I'm already looking forward to next year's class! In the meantime, McMackin will have a press conference later today to discuss this year's class, and the details should be posted at this UH Athletics Dept. web page. I'll repost it again when the info is up, and link to any media coverage as well.

GO WARRIORS!!!!