The University of Hawaii football team spent a couple of hours Wednesday cleaning the dance studios where it stayed the first two weeks of training camp.
The Rainbow Warriors will spend the next week tidying their glitches while training at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
"We’ll work on getting better," head coach Norm Chow said.
The Warriors installed their offense and defense during the on-campus phase of training camp.
The first and second units will get extensive work on base. The Warriors also are scheduled to have a dress rehearsal, including a full-contact scrimmage, at Aloha Stadium on Friday.
The Warriors struggled during team drills on Wednesday.
"It was sloppy," Chow said. "I’m disappointed in the offense. But I thought the defense practiced very well."
The Warriors had moved the start of Wednesday’s practice an hour earlier than usual to clear the dance studios. They folded cots, swept and mopped, and packed.
Chow said moving day was no an excuse for a lackluster practice.
"We don’t make excuses," Chow said. "We have to play better."
Nakama steps in at long-snapper
His father is San Jose State’s head baseball coach, and he was named after one of baseball’s top agents. But Brodie Nakama discovered in high school that diamonds were not in his future.
"I wasn’t as good in baseball," said Nakama, a graduate of Saint Francis High in Mountain View, Calif.
Instead, he was attracted to football.
"It became a passion of mine," Nakama said.
In particular, he was adept at long-snapping, a skill he learned from his older brother. Kirk Nakama is Western Michigan’s long-snapper.
"My brother learned (to long-snap) in high school, and he taught me," Nakama said.
Nakama said he wanted to attend the university in the state where his father, a Kaiser High graduate, was raised.
"It was a dream to go to UH," Nakama said. "Obviously, the chance to play football made it more realistic. It’s a dream come true to be here."
Nakama, who is not on scholarship, is the No. 1 snapper on field-goal attempts and point-after kicks. He succeeds Luke Ingram, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"We were hoping one of the long-snappers would step up, and he did," Chow said.
Chow then pointed out the Warriors were going from 6-foot-6 Ingram to a "5-6 long-snapper."
"I’m 5-9," Nakama interjected.
Nakama was named after Brodie Van Wagener, who is head of Creative Artist Agency’s baseball division. Van Wagener, in turn, was named after former San Francisco 49er quarterback John Brodie.
Ingram named student-manager
Jake Ingram, a former UH long-snapper, is rejoining the Warriors as a student-manager. He needs to pass four classes to earn a bachelor’s degree.
"We want to help him graduate," Chow said. "We told him nothing in life is free. He’s going to help us."
