News and Notes

Here are some articles and links from the past couple of weeks.

The WAC has announced it's All-Decade Team. Warriors on the team include Colt Brennan, Davone Bess, Ashley Lelie, John Estes, Samson Satele, Travis LaBoy, Solomon Elimimian, Pisa Tinoisamoa and Mat McBriar.

Over the last few weeks, the WAC conducted an online vote for the All-Decade Football team. Over 1,500 fans participated and voted on players that had been on at least two all-WAC teams between 2000 and 2009.

I should probably visit WACSports.com more often because that's the first time I've heard of this poll. Mighty Mouse would've been on it!

Speaking of All-Decade teams, the Advertiser released their high school All-Decade team. Included on the list are current and former UH players Inoke Funaki, Miah Ostrowski, Samson Satele, Kealoha Pilares, Kaniela Tuipulotu and Blaze Soares.

Speaking of Blaze Soares, Stephen Tsai writes that he'll be playing in the Texas vs. the Nation game on February 6th.

Ferd Lewis looked ahead to the season opener against USC as well as the 2010 season in general.

With a little luck — and improved health — the path back to the postseason is laid out for the Warriors. Bottom line is win just a couple of their six road games and take even five of the seven home games and the Warriors are back in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

A realistic enough and necessary goal, it would seem. Of course, the 2009 schedule was no Murderer's Row, either and UH finished 6-7. The NCAA ranked that UH schedule 97th among 120 major college teams based upon opponents' records.

UH recruit Dominick Sierra was named the CIF Southwest Division Defensive Player of the Year.

Tim O'Leary of the Valley News profiled UH recruit Christian "Bubba" Luna.

Kevin Jakahi of the Hawaii-Tribune Herald profiled UH safety Mana Silva.

"Next season our secondary will be clicking," Silva said. "We won't be playing off what we read. We'll rely on instinct. All of our starters come back. The defense will be a lot faster.

"Next season, we'll not just react. It'll help us speed-wise. The game will be a lot slower for us next season."

But before thinking too far about UH's bright future, Silva revisited the pain of the past season.

"Several games I didn't start," he said. "It hit me hard mentally. I'm not used to not starting. I've always started. I hit rock bottom, but one of my coaches said, 'Keep a great attitude.' And I worked even harder. I got my job back.

"I got out of weight. I was playing closer to 220 pounds, instead of 200. I kept eating too much. I couldn't move as well. After I came back out of it, that made me a better person. I know I can fight through tough times."

Jim Donovan participated in his monthly First and 10 Q&A with the fans on SportsHawaii.com.

And I hear Rich Miano's Q&A on The Warrior Beat Show was pretty good, but unfortunately the replay is not working very well right now.