University of Hawaii football team training at Las Vegas area high school

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

The University of Hawaii football team will travel more than 35,000 miles this fall for games.

This week, the team’s travels has it in Las Vegas — a town it won’t play in this year.

The Warriors beat Army Sept. 11 in West Point, N.Y., and play at Colorado Saturday in Boulder, Colo. So, instead of flying back to the islands, they’ve set up shop in Summerlin.

They are staying at the Suncoast and practicing each morning through Thursday at Palo Verde High. Last fall, they spent the week practicing in town prior to a game against UNLV.

The experience, which coaches say resembles a second training camp, was so beneficial that they had no reservations coming back.

“This is a great situation for us,” Hawaii coach Greg McMackin said. “We have great kids. People think I am crazy for bringing the kids to Vegas, but we’ve had no problems here. There are no distractions. We treat this like a business trip.”

The team arrives at Palo Verde on charter buses at 8:30 a.m. and immediately starts its pre-practice stretching on the Palo Verde soccer field. Once the high school’s band finishes its class on the football field, the Hawaii team has run of the facility.

Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost puts yard markers and other gear on the field and also allows the team to use Palo Verde’s weight training room.

“Palo Verde has a great facility. You can tell why they are one of the powers in the state of Nevada,” McMackin said.

Wide receiver Greg Salas said practicing on a high school field isn’t a disadvantage. In fact, he calls it refreshing.

“All of us are sharing stories from high school football,” Salas said. “This takes you back and gets you reminiscing.”

There are no locals on the Hawaii roster, but assistant coach Tony Tuioti was the defensive coordinator in 2007 at Silverado High. Tuioti is in charge of recruiting Southern Nevada and knows first-hand the quality of players the area has to offer.

His Silverado team won the Southeast Division and had three players sign with Division I schools. Kick returner Michael Wadsworth played for the Warriors last year before leaving on a church mission.

“We had some great players on that team,” Tuioti said of the Silverado squad. “That was a great group of kids to coach.”

It’s more than a training camp for McMackin. It’s also a homecoming.

He owns two homes in the Vistas neighborhood of Summerlin and spends about four weeks each year vacationing there. Ultimately, he plans to retire to Summerlin.

Howard Jenkins and Chuck Niggemeyer, McMackin’s neighbors, have attended the practices and enjoy having a chance to visit with their friend.

“We always see him when he is in town. He is a great neighbor,” Niggemeyer said. “He’s the type of guy everyone would want as a neighbor.”

This likely won’t be the last year the Hawaii team will spend time training in Las Vegas. The team that is seemingly always in transit might return in future seasons.

“Those 35,000 miles are 10,000 more than every NFL team — and two are traveling to London this year,” McMackin said jokingly.