Road Trip: University of Hawaii

It's 80 degrees every day, it's 25 cents to Waikiki Beach and it boasts several top flight programs. Why isn't every top athlete flocking to paradise?

By Bill Syken

DEAR CHAMPAIGN, MADISON, LINCOLN, SYRACUSE AND EVERY OTHER PERMAFROSTED CAMPUS ON THE MAINLAND:

As you sift through spring break travel deals in search of a tropical locale -- $599 to Negril, $449 to Cancun -- here's another option to consider: 25 cents to warm, sunny Waikiki Beach. Never heard of it? Waikiki is on the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii's third-largest island, and it features highly rideable surf and enough beautiful people that Lonely Planet designated it "the hottest spot west of Rio."

Hawaii native Timmy Chang (14) has given the football program serious fangs. Robert Beck

If you're thinking there's a catch, well, you're right. No wonder you're in college! As catches go, however, this one is fairly palatable: You must be enrolled at the University of Hawaii, where that travel deal -- students pay 25 cents for the 15-minute trolley ride to the beach -- is available every day.

So why aren't you in Honolulu right now? More important, why aren't the nation's best college athletes tripping over one another to suit up for Hawaii?

It's worth wondering why Hawaii doesn't have the best sports teams in the country, because the island should be the ultimate recruiting tool. A smattering of stars have succumbed to its siren song, including Denver Broncos receiver Ashley Lelie and kicker Jason Elam -- though the Georgia-raised Elam initially thought the Hawaii recruiting call was a practical joke, as he had never heard of the Rainbow Warriors' football team. The school regularly attracts enough top-notch men's and women's volleyball players to make the programs among the nation's elite. But by and large the Hawaii athletic department surfs under the public's radar.

Jake Muise, a senior volleyball player, says that picking Hawaii was an obvious call. He grew up as a surfing fanatic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he would put on a head-to-toe bodysuit and drag his surfboard over five feet of snow to rip waves in the icy Atlantic. "When they brought me here for a recruiting trip, they took me to the arena and then straight to the beach," he said. "When I got in the water, I knew I was home."

Other athletes are attracted, believe it or not, by academic offerings. Hawaii has a curriculum that mainland schools can't duplicate. Brittany Grice, a freshman on the women's basketball team from Redondo Beach, Calif., was recruited by Cal, Dartmouth and Brown, but she came to Oahu in part because she wanted to study marine biology; she hopes to practice environmental law someday. Hawaii's unique course listings include volcanology and tropical agriculture, and classes are held at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, a.k.a. HURL. Who doesn't have the urge to HURL every now and then?

Another selling point for the school's nonrevenue teams is media exposure: Nearly every sport is mentioned on TV and/or written about in local papers on a regular basis because when it comes to team sports, UH is the biggest show for literally thousands of miles in any direction. "The amount of coverage we get is amazing," Grice says.

So let's see: We've got surf, we've got media attention, we've got HURL. Why isn't every Hawaii team a perennial Western Athletic Conference or NCAA title contender like its volleyball clubs?

Hawaii's football coach, June Jones, says the island's appeal actually can complicate the recruiting process. An athlete will pretend to be interested, even if he's already decided to go elsewhere, so he can take advantage of the free visit. "Every kid we would recruit would want one of their five paid trips to be to Hawaii... unless they were stupid," says Jones, who took over the program in December 1998. After being jilted repeatedly his first couple of years, Jones stopped pursuing kids outside of Hawaii's traditional mainland pipeline of the West Coast, unless they fit a specific profile outlined by former coach Dick Tomey: The athlete has to 1) be of Polynesian heritage, 2) have lived in Hawaii or 3) come from a broken home. Players raised by single parents or grandparents, Tomey reasoned, are more likely to leave their home states because they don't have parents who've watched them play every high school game and expect to do the same in college.

Jones himself is perhaps the best example of the island's allure. He turned down a four-year, $3 million contract from the San Diego Chargers to take a job at Hawaii that paid $320,000 -- he had played there in the early '70s and always wanted to return. This past season was a breakthrough one for Jones. An upset of Alabama and a Hawaii Bowl victory over Houston were among the Rainbow Warriors' nine wins. The incoming recruiting class includes players from Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina -- all of whom approached Jones's staff, asked to be recruited and passed the screening test to gauge their sincerity.

But if a football recruit wants to scam a free weekend trip, why not scam a scholarship while he's at it? Part of the problem is that mainland athletes, especially the most talented ones, don't see Hawaii play on TV the way they see Miami or Notre Dame or UCLA, and they assume attending a lower-profile school will hurt their NFL prospects.

The more likely answer, though, is simple geography. Hawaii is the most remote populated island on the planet, making it a gigantic lure to vacationers but a significant drawback for teenagers living away from home for the first time. Muise, the volleyball player, gave his family a webcam for Christmas so they can see one another when they talk every other day. Amy Sanders, a sophomore guard on the women's basketball team, admits to some homesickness. "My dad used to rebound with me every day," says the Huntington Beach, Calif., native. "Now when I have a problem, I can't work with him on it."

Still, some students do choose the school because they want to get away from home. A friend of Janessa Ruckle argued with her mother just before college decision time, got drunk and sent off her UH acceptance letter. "That sounds like a weird story, but it's surprisingly common," says Ruckle, a freshman who moved to Hawaii when she was in high school.

In a way, enrolling at Hawaii is an extreme solution to an issue all high school seniors deal with: the desire to move away from home and establish your own identity. It's just a matter of how far you're willing to to, both literally and metaphorically. Mainlanders who decide to attend Hawaii will have four years to figure out if life's a beach. At least that gives them something to think about when on those 25-cent trolley rides to Waikiki.

Issue date: March 4, 2004

SI ON CAMPUS Sports Illustrated On Campus, a new magazine covering college sports and collegiate lifestyles, is available as an insert in 72 major college newspapers across the country every Thursday throughout the school year. Click any of the links below to see selected content from the latest issue, or click here to get the entire issue in digital format. • Cover story: Why aren't athletes flocking to Hawaii? • Scorecard: There's a new vibe at Southern Illinois • Previous issue: Feb. 26, 2004