Timmy Chang felt the wind slamming against his house the night before, as he lay in bed contemplating the next football practice for his Rainbow Warriors. He and his coaching staff had been working daily to install the run-and-shoot offense Hawaii used to such magical effect in many past seasons, and how would all those footballs flying through the air be treated by 50 mile-per-hour gusts?
“I thought our guys handled the throwing and the practice really well,” Chang told the Sporting News. “It didn’t really bother them too much, because we’ve had winds like that in February, because it was a gusty season. But it just stayed consistently windy for almost 36 hours.”
And then, as the day continued, Chang and the members of his staff and football team began to learn what was happening as the result of those winds just 80 miles away, on another island but very much within what Hawaiians refer to as the Ohana: the uniquely peaceful town at the heart of Maui’s western coast, Lahaina, was being burned off the face of the Earth.
Wildfires that spread rapidly across Maui killed more than 100 and destroyed much of Lahaina’s central district. There are so many still missing it seems inevitable the number of dead will grow, perhaps exponentially.
“When I heard the whole Lahaina Front Street had been wiped out, you know it’s bad. And then you hear about people jumping in the water to escape the flames … It’s sad, and you’re worried,” Chang said. “I’ve got players, I’ve got coaches, they’ve got family members, we’ve got family members over there. We’ve got friends over there. You’re worried if people are OK.
“You’re starting to hear the stories about what was going on there, and it’s a tough deal. It could happen to anybody. It could happen to any of our towns and communities here on Oahu, as well as elsewhere … The dryness, with the fire and the winds, it just tore the place up very, very fast. So it’s sad. It’s sad. It’s sad.
“This will be an ongoing rebuild for years.”
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When football coaches use that word this time of year, usually they are talking about mixing new players into their defense or offensive line, but what happened on Maui deeply impacted the University of Hawaii squad. There is one coach from the island, Jordan Pu’u-Robinson of Wailuku, who is in charge of the defensive ends. Defensive back Kimo Holo Holt-Mossman is from Kula, near the geographic center of Maui.
“We’re all kind of one degree away,” Chang told TSN.
One player, wide receiver Karsyn Pupunu, is from Lahaina and lost his aunt, uncle and two cousins in the fire. At first he was resistant to leave training camp and return home, Chang said, but he ultimately chose to take a short leave and, upon returning, “was very grateful and thankful that he got to do that, be around family and grieve for a little bit.”
When word of the tragedy became fully known to the football players on the day following the worst of the fire, their response was immediate: They asked their coaches what they could do to help. There was some conversation about traveling to the island to aid in the recovery, but that turned out not to be feasible. They could raise money, though, and collect goods that could help survivors.
The Rainbow Warriors already had been planning a Fan Fest for their Saturday, Aug. 12 scrimmage. They announced a drive in conjunction with that, asking those who planned to attend to bring non-perishable items that might be used by those on Maui: food, clothing, diapers.
“Whatever anyone could afford, we’d have a place to drop it off,” Chang said. “And we were just one of the many of these drives that were going across the state. There’s so much, people trying to do their part. That’s one of the beauties of Hawaii, besides the weather, it’s the people who make this place special.
“I was happy that my guys wanted to do it and be a part of something like this. But their hearts are heavy, just as my heart is heavy, for the people of Maui. But my guys know the best way to go and do their part is to make these people of Maui proud, and make the state proud, by winning football games. They’ve been really focused on that.”
Hawaii did not enjoy a successful season a year ago, finishing 3-10 in Chang’s first season. There were so many extenuating circumstances, though. The head coach the prior season had been Todd Graham, an unpopular figure among many players and their families, who resigned after 19 team members entered the transfer portal by January 2022.
Chang had been on the coaching staff at Nevada and was a natural choice to return to Hawaii, where he set the NCAA record for passing yards as a four-year starter at quarterback under June Jones. Save for the time he spent playing in the NFL and leagues in Canada and Europe and coaching at mainland colleges, he is a lifelong Hawaiian. He knows as well as anyone what the Rainbow Warriors can mean to the Islands.
We have seen athletic teams provide that momentary diversion and source of pride after unspeakable disasters of the past, whether it was the exhilaration of Mike Piazza’s game-winning home run in the Mets’ first game back after 9/11 or Japan women’s national team invigorating their nation by winning the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup following the horrific earthquake and tsunami that struck its northern coast. Sports are not life-and-death, but they can inject a small dose of life into the darkest moments.
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It’s a lot of ask of these Rainbow Warriors, to travel all the way to Nashville and defeat an improving Vanderbilt squad in an Aug. 26 game to be televised by the SEC Network (and for which Vandy will donate a portion of ticket sales to the Maui Strong charity). With a pregame moment of silence planned as a reminder of the tragedy that occurred so recently, it may be enough that they deliver the effort. The Warriors are looking forward, though not beyond the Commodores, to having Stanford visit Honolulu the following Friday.
“We’re planning on honoring the people of Maui, and the lost ones and the ones going through it right now,” Chang said. “We really believe the island of Maui and our state will be watching us and supporting us, and we’d love to give back to them by going out and winning these games.”
