By STEPHEN TSAI
By STEPHEN TSAI
Tribune New Service
Hawaii linebacker Max Broman was nearly the pooper at his own surprise party.
Last weekend head coach Nick Rolovich hired a hypnotist to perform at a team meeting during which Broman would be awarded a football scholarship. There was a hitch: Broman had asked to be excused from the session because he wanted to work at a catering job to help pay for his upcoming tuition.
Rolovich bluffed Broman, saying he would be booted from the team if he missed Saturday’s event. Rolovich then called Broman’s parents in Draper, Utah, “to tell them, ‘You can’t let him work. I’m giving him a scholarship.’”
Broman said it was surreal when hypnotist Greg Gabaylo handed him a paper with the scholarship offer.
“He’s a senior,” Rolovich reasoned. “He’s sacrificed a lot for this place. He’s all in on Hawaii — not just Hawaii football but this state and this culture.”
It was 10 years ago when Broman decided he wanted to be a Rainbow Warrior.
“In 2007, I watched them play (on television) and they just had the tenacity that was incomparable to anything else I’d ever seen,” Broman said. “From that day on, I was compelled by this university.”
Broman turned down opportunities to attend schools in Utah. Instead, he joined the Warriors as a walk-on running back in 2013. He redshirted that season, and then faced a red-ink future. His family helped with tuition. But to pay for other expenses, he left the football team in 2014 and worked full time for $7.25 an hour at a fitness center. Wideouts Marcus Kemp and Ammon Barker let Broman sleep on their couch. Safety Daniel Lewis also opened his apartment to Broman.
“How could you not do that for him or any of our teammates?” Lewis said. “We’re brothers.”
Broman, who continued taking classes during his football hiatus, rejoined the Warriors as a linebacker in January 2015. He was a functional scout player in 2015, and a special-teams contributor in 12 games in 2016.
Broman now shares an off-campus place with Barker, cornerback Cameron Hayes and tight end Dakota Torres. Broman and Barker work as servers for a catering company. Broman and Lewis recently were hired as part of the crew on a 65-foot sailing boat that caters to celebrities. In their first week, the passengers were former president Bill Clinton, actor Pierce Brosnan, actress Jessica Alba and comedian/actor Dane Cook.
“There were a lot of lessons learned,” Broman said of his time in Hawaii. “It really gave me an appreciation of what a scholarship means and how lucky I am to have that. … We had some hard years here, but I never, for once, regretted my decision coming here. I had some tough years, but I wasn’t going to quit because this was my dream. I’m here for the long run.”
The Hawaii women’s volleyball team is ranked No. 20 in the AVCA Coaches Division I Preseason Top 25 today, the lowest ranking for a Rainbow Wahine team since 1993.
Hawaii has been ranked in the preseason poll every year since the inception in 1982. In 1993, the Wahine were at No. 22 following a 15-12 season where they missed the postseason tournament for the only time.
This marks just the second time Hawaii was ranked 20th or lower. The Wahine, the preseason pick to win the Big West Conference, finished ranked at No. 17 last year.
Texas (25 first-place votes) is ranked No. 1, followed by defending national champion Stanford (35 votes), Washington (2) and Minnesota (2).
Aug. 09—The four-team field of Hawaii basketball’s season-opening Rainbow Classic has been revealed.
UH will play against Troy, North Dakota and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in an order to be announced later over Nov. 10-13. The round-robin field was announced by Troy in its schedule release. UH has yet to release its 2017-18 schedule.
Troy (22-15) of the Sun Belt and UND (22-10) of the Big Sky are coming off 15-seed appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Pine Bluff of the SWAC went 7-25. Hawaii was 14-16.
UH hosted the Troy Trojans last Nov. 25 and lost 65-63, then played UAPB two days later, beating the Golden Lions 64-44. This season will be the sixth time in eight years the Lions have visited Manoa, including the fourth straight year.
UH hosted North Dakota on Nov. 20, 2012 and beat it 71-66 back when UND was without an official nickname. Now its teams are known as the Fighting Hawks.
Of 351 teams in the final NCAA RPI calculation last year, North Dakota was 133rd, Troy was 150th, Hawaii was 300th and Pine Bluff was 345th.
Other known games on the schedule are Nevada on Nov. 24, at Utah on Dec. 2, and Miami on Dec. 22.