OT - Hawai'i Football Culture

While this has pretty much nothing to do with Virginia Tech, I stumbled across this series on Campus Rush from last fall. I thought it was an intriguing look at a program that has many different challenges, but a unique culture that surrounds it.

Here's a couple of passages from Part 1 that I found to be a similar message to those around the Hokie program, about keeping players in-state:

Tulimasealii strongly considered going to almost every Pac-12 school, most notably Washington, at which he felt a connection because the Huskies were the first college football program to seriously pursue the undersized prospect. But the islands, which include Hawai'i, Tonga and American Samoa, where Tulimasealii was born, have a special pull on everyone, Tulimasealii says, especially the locals. He wanted to stay to see if he could help bring pride back to the only game in town. He wanted to lift his people.

Tulimasealii stayed, he says, because he wanted to help his people rise. Sapolu, Chang and Mariota lifted Hawai'i up; now it's time for the next generation to carry some of that honor, too. It will only take one local staying and shining, Tulimasealii says, for everyone else to follow. They're setting the table for a Hawai'i football renaissance. But in the wake of Mariota's success, do high schoolers have the same passion for UHโ€”or are they already fixated on the mainland?

PART 1 - CAN HAWAI'I FOOTBALL GET ITS MANA BACK? THE PULL AND PROBLEMS WITH THE PROGRAM OF THE ISLANDS

PART 2 - A HEISMAN AND A LEGACY: HOW MARCUS MARIOTA'S SUCCESS HAS CHANGED HAWAI'I'S FOOTBALL CULTURE

PART 3 - THE ISLANDS' NEXT GREAT QB: TUA TAGOVAILOA, AND THE STORY OF THE MAN WHO INSPIRED HIM TO SOAR

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I told him Iโ€™d crawl on my hands and knees to be the DL coach at Virginia Tech. Now, all of a sudden, Iโ€™m sitting in this chair and I told him Iโ€™d still crawl on my hands and knees to work here. I just want to be here.
JC Price