A day after Monday’s ho-hum practice, the University of Hawaii football team needed some pep.
That came Tuesday in the form of 15 members of UH cheerleader squad performing during the Rainbow Warriors’ team, 7-on-7 and two-minute drills on the grass practice field.
“We wanted to help,” said cheerleader coach Mike Baker, whose own squad is in two-a-day training.
Football coach Nick Rolovich said the cheerleaders’ appearance was in the works for a while. But the timing — a day after a lackluster practice and four days ahead of the Warriors’ departure for Australia for the season opener against California — was much needed.
“I’ve been falsely accused of favoritism on both sides, so I brought the cheerleaders out — one (group) to cheer for the offense, one to cheer for the defense,” Rolovich said. The players “got distracted a little bit. They need to understand game day is going to have those distractions. It served a couple purposes.”
Defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa mused: “That was distracting me with all the noise. But that’s football. You have to play through it.”
Both sides had their moments. Quarterbacks Aaron Zwahlen and Dru Brown made plays with accurate throws and scrambles. Brown hit slotback John Ursua for 9 yards on a fourth-and-7 play. Ursua, who suffered “a little bit of dehydration” on Monday, was at full strength — and top speed — during Tuesday’s practice.
In the two-minute drill, the defense made three third-down stops. Cornerback Ro Farris had two breakups. Cornerback Terrence Sayles, who was added to the active roster last week, had a lunging deflection. And safety Trayvon Henderson, a year removed from ACL surgery, chased down Brown for a sack.
“It feels pretty good when I run,” Henderson said. “I always have to do my normal routine of warm-up to get my legs ready. From there, I should be all right.”
After the two-hour practice, Rolovich thanked the cheerleaders — and his players.
“I appreciate guys getting here and coming to practice today with the right mind-set,” Rolovich said, a reference to Monday’s sluggish practice, for which two players were tardy. As punishment, the tardy players watched the rest of the team roll the width of the field and back.
The Warriors had a 100-minute scrimmage Saturday at Aloha Stadium. They had an off day on Sunday. Were they suffering from the Monday blues?
“Monday blues?” Rolovich said. “No Monday blues. It’s football season. Wait until they get a desk job, then they’ll really have Monday blues.”
