He knows some consider it giggle-worthy and that’s part of the charm of the mustache featured by one of the newcomers to the men’s basketball roster at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
He knows some consider it giggle-worthy and that’s part of the charm of the mustache featured by one of the newcomers to the men’s basketball roster at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
You can pencil in Ryley Callaghan, a 6-foot-1 transfer from Peninsula Community College in Washington, as the starting point guard for the Vulcans in the upcoming 2016-17 season and if you think the look seems as outdated as Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck or Ned Flanders, try considering it as classic, instead. Callaghan has used it that way, to gain an edge
It came from a classic coach, former South Kitsap (Washington) High School baseball coach Elton Goodwin, a regional legend who passed away in 2013 as a result of complications from hip surgery. Goodwin coached three state champions, posted a 491-136 record and won 19 league championships while stressing details and aggressive play. Goodwin wore a mustache and was great friend of Ryley’s father John, who coached basketball at South Kitsap.
“I grew it as a tribute to Coach Goodwin,” Callaghan said the other day in the UH-Hilo gym, “and then I started hearing about it when we played on the road. The other team would sometimes point or laugh, there were always comments from the crowd, but I just tried to turn it into motivation.”
The best example of that was two years ago when Callaghan was a freshman at Peninsula, playing at Tacoma CC in a conference game.
“They were laughing, saying things, before the game” Callaghan recalled, “we all heard it, I definitely heard it; they would say, ‘Look, that’s Callaghan, look at him,’ stuff like that.
“It helped me focus,” Callaghan said. “I got 35 that night.”
The facial hair may be a topic of conversation in the offseason, but chances are it won’t be a laughing matter when the season starts for a radically transformed Vulcans’ roster.
It is almost two months from the first practice on Oct. 15, but Callaghan will be the point guard — he’ll be at least three inches taller than either of the UHH starting backcourt players last year — but he is the shortest of six newcomers.
“It is the biggest team, by far, that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Hawaii Hilo coach GE Coleman. “It’s a nice change.”
Coleman is restricted by NCAA rules from watching his players scrimmage, but when he gets full control of them, he will have many more options than he had a year ago.
Just last week Coleman added a sixth newcomer to the roster, 6-5 wing Arnold Silva from Santa Rosa Community College, the same school that gave the Vulcans leading scorer Parker Farris (16 points per game last year). Silva led the team in rebounding and will be yet another big body that can pound the boards and defend.
“We were terrible on the boards last year,” Coleman said, “we had to be down at the bottom somewhere. If we aren’t near the top this year, something’s gone wrong.”
The Vulcans were 12th in offensive rebounding in the 14-team Pacific West Conference a year ago, averaging 9 per game. They were 10th in rebounding margin at minus-9 per game.
The other newcomers starting school this week include wings Donavan Taylor (6-3, junior, Chaffey Junior College), Eric Wattree (6-3 freshman, South Kitsap High School), Brian Ishola (6-6 junior, North Dakota State University transfer), and Onyx Boyd (6-11, freshman, Bishop Sullivan High School, Virginia Beach, Va.).
The newcomers, who Coleman will mix with four returnees and possibly another walk-on or two, will present a variety of options unavailable a year ago.
“I really like it here, a lot,” said Ishola. “I’m really excited about settling in and getting to know these guys, it’s a pretty good group of guys. It’s so comfortable here, already, I thought it would take time to make an adjustment but it’s like, I’ve been here a couple days and it’s all good.”
Wattree, who played one season at South Kitsap when Callaghan was a senior, was also favorably impressed by his choice of school.
“I came over with my dad and it was raining when we got here, but we knew it rains, so no big deal, but then we got up the next morning and it was outrageous, the sky was orange at sunrise and I said, ‘This is just Hawaii welcoming us,’ it’s really beautiful here.”
Wattree comes with a high school reputation as a basket-filler, having averaged 23.4 points per game on a South Kitsap team that struggled last year with every opponent trying to limit his scoring. If he and his old point guard can find a rhythm, he might be able to ease the perimeter scoring burden for the Vulcans on senior Parker Farris, who led the conference in 3-point field goals.
It can only be good news at this point that Wattree shares the comfort zone feeling with the other newcomers.
“It’s really a bunch of good guys we have here,” Wattree said, “I mean, most of us have only been here a couple days but I think we all feel like we’re together; we’re friends already and honestly, that isn’t always the case.
“I’ve been on some teams with real knuckleheads,” he said, “and that can just take the fun out of it when you have distractions and egos and all that, but I feel like we’re all cool here. I certainly am impressed by these (returning players), they’re helpful, they want to work hard and I think we’re going to have fun, I can’t wait.”
That’s a good place to be compared to a year ago when Coleman lost his best returning player to a professional contract overseas, lost his next best player — 6-6 center Darius Johnson-Wilson, healthy and back for a redshirt junior season — to a torn meniscus and then had his backcourt depleted by a player who dropped out of school.
You would hardly imagine it’s the same team, but that’s what happens with a successful radical makeover.