The University of Hawaii football team’s talent search is circling back to Manoa.
The Rainbow Warriors are conducting tryouts for quarterbacks and kickers on Tuesday morning ahead of that day’s first practice of spring training.
“I’d like to get another arm,” coach Nick Rolovich said.
Ikaika Woolsey, Beau Reilly and Aaron Zwahlen are the quarterbacks on the spring roster. Freshman Cole McDonald joins in June. Rolovich is hopeful of adding at least one more quarterback to help in passing and defensive drills during the 15 spring practices spread over five weeks.
Two weeks ago, the Warriors held walk-on tryouts for potential players who already are enrolled at UH. Because the session was held outside the window for practices during the spring semester, footballs were not allowed to be used during the audition.
The ball restrictions are lifted beginning Tuesday, with the tryouts counted as part of the first practice.
“This will give us a chance to see what the kickers and quarterbacks can do,” Rolovich said.
Rigo Sanchez is the only kicker on UH’s roster. He was the placekicker and punter last year. Alex Trifonovitch, who redshirted as a freshman last year, is the other punter.
The auditions are limited to full-time UH students with a minimum 2.5 grade-point average. There are at least three quarterbacks who will participate in the tryouts, including Hunter Hughes, who earned a berth on the 2014 spring roster after doing well in an audition. He did not make the 2014 fall roster.
The Warriors have added six walk-ons from this month’s tryouts: Austin Gerard, a safety who played at Kamehameha Schools; Ka‘ena Paikai, a defensive back who played at Saint Louis School and Saddleback College; Austin Pang-Kee, a defensive back at Damien whose father Tony is a former UH safety; tight end Jacob Yanak, a former Marine who was raised in Green Bay; Jared Tomaszek, a slotback from Saint Louis School, and wideout Terrence Sayles, who was on UH’s 2014 team.
Former Warriors John Estes and Marc Moody are joining the coaching staff as interns.
