Amid 115-degree heat in Las Vegas, the Circa Resort and Casino is providing a cool headquarters for the annual Mountain West Conference Football Media Days.
Two weeks away from kickoff to training camp, the University of Hawai’i started the two-day event, attended by more than 250 credentialed media members. The event involves press conferences, availability sessions, and promotional shoots. UH was represented by student athletes Brayden Schager and Peter Manuma.
Among the many headlines for day one was the release of the preseason poll and all-conference teams. The Rainbow Warriors have not appeared to turn up the volume outside of the islands, as the Bows were picked ninth in the 12-team conference projections, without a single player named All-MWC.
Senior quarterback Brayden Schager, who helped spark UH to a 3-1 finish last season with 3,500 yards passing in a return to the run-and-shoot offense, fully embraces the lack of expectations and is motivated to earn respect in 2024.
“It does add fuel to the fire. We want to prove them wrong. I mean, I think it’s just something that, you know, I think a lot of people don’t know about our team this year. And I like that in a sense,” Schager said. “I think that we got a chance to do something special. Not a lot of people realize that. So I think it’ll be fun to prove everybody wrong, especially in those first four games. So I’m excited about that. It feels like everything from on the field, off-field is just clicking at a different level now. We’ve started to really start to feel like a really good program now, and I think that we’re doing things differently that we hadn’t been doing, and I think that’ll really translate to the field as well.”
Peter Manuma added, “For us right now, everybody’s locked in and we feel like as a team collectively we feel like this is our time. You know, the last two years it’s been kind of rough going, but this year, this year, everybody’s bought in and everybody is ready to just bring value every day and everybody seems to get that idea and that mentality.”
“The Hawaii community is one of a kind. You know, when we win, the community wins, without a doubt. We play for our team as a team; that’s what we do. That’s why people came here as the kids are looking up to us. And I mean, what better place than Hawaii.”
Rainbow Warriors training camp opens on July 24. Kickoff to the season is on August 24 against Delaware State.
Mountain West Conference media days will continue Thursday with the head coaches hitting the stage.
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