The Hawaii football team was able to wake up and smell the coffee on Thursday.
Through Tuesday, the Rainbow Warriors are training at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where every dormitory room includes an air conditioner, desks and single-cup coffee makers.
"I set it up (Wednesday) night," receiver Scott Harding said. "I woke up, pushed the button and had a cup of coffee."
Harding also called dibs on his room’s queen-sized bed.
"At my age," said Harding, who is 27, "obviously, I demand a little more authority. It’s been good."
The accommodations are improved from the first two weeks of training camp, when the Warriors slept on rental cots in two dance studios on the second floor of the UH athletic complex. They endured dust and noise from nearby construction projects, and a night when the air was muggy and still.
The Warriors relocated to Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Wednesday.
"It’s been great over here," quarterback Taylor Graham said.
With jet planes in the background, the Warriors practiced on Earhart Field, a manicured grass field also used for Pro Bowl workouts.
The players also have access to the base’s weight rooms.
"It’s a nice place to train," linebacker Deon Leatimua said.
Leatimua is familiar with the facilities. He works at the base’s commissary near the dormitories.
Leatimua said he has been an employee since his junior year at Radford High.
"If I get time off on the weekend (from football), I’ll still work there," he said.
Leatimua was raised in a military family, and lived for several years at the Aliamanu military reservation. He said he used to walk onto the base to train at Earhart Field.
Leatimua was a member of the Air Force ROTC for three years. Each morning, ROTC members would run on the Ching Complex track.
"Then the football team would come on and kick us off the field," Leatimua said, smiling.
After Norm Chow was hired as UH’s head coach in December, a tryout for walk-on candidates was held two months later.
"There were 100 of us," Leatimua said. "Only two of us made it."
Leatimua and Joe Ragsdale participated in the 2012 spring training, but neither was added to the fall roster. Ragsdale now works with the strength/conditioning staff. Leatimua was invited to this past spring training. He made enough of an impression to be included in training camp.
Leatimua is now training on an Air Force base.
"I plan on going back to finish ROTC," Leatimua said. "It’s hard to juggle ROTC with football."
