[Mike Simonds]

Fili the Polynesian Warrior is kinda cool...

Its my understanding he is not affiliated with the University of Hawaii in any other capacity except as their mascot (kinda like that unemployed Hollywood actor/USC graduate that USC employs to dress-up in Trojan garb and ride his white horse around the LA Colisium). He began a few years ago as an unpaid volunteer but now I think they pay him a small fee per game to do his war dance and drum beating... (I like the way he ripples his pectoral muscles and fat for the cameras also)...

He seems like a good natured "noble-savage" type of guy (I just think the University needs to control his behavior more because he does taunt the other team and their supporters mostly out of fun but he does get carried away at times) but people outside of Hawaii need to realize that our state is not the sugar-coated tropical paradise that the Hawaii Visitor's Bureau portrays to the rest of the world. Many of the local people are struggling, most families are working hard just to make ends meet (heck, I can't even remember the last time I went to the beach), and we have the same problems as most other parts of the country.

Local people are wonderful though. They are very caring, will share their last grain of rice or spam musabi with you, and love to talk story about anything under the sun. They are also very proud of their culture and there has been a resurgence in canoe paddling, hula, and Hawaiian music.

As a result, many of us here in Hawaii have this attitude that the rest of the country views us as the tail wagging at the end of the dog. And because of this perception that local kids are somehow not as smart or not as gifted in sports breeds a confrontational attitude. Thats why a lot of teams from the mainland USA don't like to come and play here. Hawaii wants to prove that they can compete with the rest of the country.

Thats why the Board of Trustees/Regents at U.H. are paying the big bucks to June Jones because he sold them a bill of goods that he was going to take them to national prominence.

Has he succeeded? Well, if you judge national prominence by success on the football field you have mixed results... He has completed several 9 win seasons but many would say the victories have come against weaker competition in the WAC. He has won the conference title once in his 5 seasons but again many claim the WAC is a weaker conference. He does have a tendency to run-up the score against weaker teams and it is known that he is somewhat of a loner and not very well liked among his peers in the coaching profession.

If you judge prominence by sportsmanship and class he has failed miserably. The on-field brawls (seems like Hawaii is involved in at least 1 or 2 major brawls per season), the academic struggles of several star players (Timmy Chang and Travis LaBoy are the most high-profile starters that have missed at least one game this season), and the overall "blame the officials, blame the press, blame everybody else" except "his almighty" head-coach Jones brings a bad taste to my mouth.

Yes, I want to see the University of Hawaii succeed on the football field but not the way they are doing it now.