Starting in childhood through college, Aloha Stadium figures prominently throughout Chevan Cordeiro’s football memories.
Some of the earliest date back to nights in the stadium’s shaking grandstands among the crowds reveling in the University of Hawaii’s 2007 run to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.
“The stadium was packed, jumping, it was crazy,” Cordeiro recalled. “I was a little kid so I didn’t really know as much, but my dad always took us to the games and it was crazy.”
He crafted more enduring moments down on the Halawa turf from Pop Warner games through the dramatic final throw of his high school career at Saint Louis — a touchdown pass in the final minute of the state title game — and fourth-quarter comebacks in his first two seasons as a UH quarterback.
Now entrenched as the Rainbow Warriors’ starter and Aloha Stadium’s immediate future in doubt, Cordeiro will cap his third year in the program in UH’s first mainland bowl game since that Colt Brennan-led team captivated Cordeiro, along with much of the state, some 13 years ago.
“I have a lot of great memories,” Cordeiro told reporters in a zoom session, “but right now I’m just focused on the game we have and I’m focused on what we can control.”
The Rainbow Warriors (4-4) held their last on-campus practice of 2020 on Sunday and departed for Texas in advance of Thursday’s relocated New Mexico Bowl. UH faces Houston (3-4) in the Christmas Eve matchup at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
The site of the Warriors’ next home game — scheduled for Sept. 4, 2021 against Portland State — was thrown into flux with last Thursday’s announcement that Aloha Stadium would shut down operations indefinitely and UH’s response that the school would “take responsibility ourselves to find a suitable venue for our Rainbow Warriors… to play in front of our loyal fans beginning in 2021.”
While the development brought uncertainty into the future outlook, the Warriors kept their attention on more immediate challenges since resuming practice last Wednesday.
“It’s just out of our control, we’re focused on the task at hand,” UH junior linebacker Khoury Bethley said. “The coaches and the administration, that’s their focus, that’s not our focus. We’re just here to play ball and take care of our schoolwork here and they’ll take care of that and we’re just ready to play Houston.”
The Warriors will make their third straight bowl appearance and 14th overall in Thursday’s nationally televised matchup with Houston. Aside from UH’s 1992 win over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and the 2008 Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia in New Orleans, the program’s other 11 bowl games were held at Aloha Stadium.
Bethley sealed a win over BYU with an interception in the final minute of a 38-34 victory in the Hawaii Bowl last Christmas Eve, UH’s most recent game at Aloha Stadium played with fans in attendance.
Thursday’s game will be a rematch of one of the wildest Hawaii Bowls, a 54-48 Warriors win in triple overtime that ended with a brawl after the final whistle.
The current Warriors are preparing to face a Houston offense averaging 32.3 points and 423 yards per game, with quarterback Clayton Tune completing 61% of his throws with 13 touchdowns, four going to Marquez Stevenson (20 catches 307 yards).
“There’s going to be a lot of hype around it, ” Bethley said. “They’ve got good receivers, we’ve got a good DB corps, and we’ve done really well against the pass this year, so we’re going to be going at it and it’s going to be a really good game.”