"I consider Hawaii my home now. My family is here in L.A., and it’s where I live, but I love Hawaii and I hope to come back and help people there, because a lot of people there helped me."
Abraham Elimimian told me those words 10 years ago, nearly to the day. He had just completed his University of Hawaii football career and was preparing for the NFL scouting combine.
And it’s the only quote from him there will be in this column that is about him. That’s because Elimimian is the defensive coordinator at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and out of respect for that he declined to talk about the possibility — hey, let’s be real: the probability — of him joining the UH football coaching staff in the very immediate future.
So I’ll just say it. He’s a great fit for the Rainbow Warriors … just like he was at the turn of the millennium when he arrived in Hawaii as an 18-year-old freshman.
When Elimimian got here he was not a great player yet. But he used his redshirt year to full advantage and built himself into an outstanding college cornerback who started for four seasons.
"I think he was a classic case of an overachiever," said Rich Miano, his position coach at UH. "He played bigger than his measurables because of his tremendous belief in himself. He was on the right side of the fine line between confidence and cockiness. You get to know him and you realize his passion and caring. As a player he treated the walk-ons the same as the stars."
There were plenty of the latter at UH during Elimimian’s playing years of 2001 to 2004 … all winning seasons. I agree with Miano when he says this would be a "phenomenal hire for Norm Chow," partly because Elimimian can help re-instill confidence at UH; he played in three bowl games, and the only reason it wasn’t four was because the Hawaii Bowl didn’t exist in 2001.
And, as he understands playing on an island figuratively as a cornerback, he also gets it about living in the islands.
"He loves Hawaii, he appreciates it, he understands it," Miano said. "They need guys like him."
The complete turnover of Chow’s staff after just three seasons is alarming, but now at least — assuming Elimimian is hired — the Rainbow Warriors will have a full-time assistant who knows the feeling of running through the tunnel at Aloha Stadium and playing for the 808. They haven’t had that since Tony Tuioti was let go after the 2013 season.
After Elimimian graduated and then gave the NFL his best shot (tryouts with the Bears in 2006 and the Chargers in 2007 and playing for Amsterdam of NFL Europe), his brother Solomon starred as a linebacker at UH.
Solomon is coming off a tremendous season with the BC Lions where he became the first purely defensive player to win the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player Award.
The brothers both live in Vancouver … for now.
"I was able to come out and help (at SFU)," Solomon said. "Abe did a fantastic job and has accomplished a lot there in a short time. I know (UH is) Abe’s dream job. Hawaii was so good to him and our family."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads Opens in a new tab.
