Homecoming or family reunion?<\/p>\n
It will be a lot of both when Hawaii plays host to San Jose State in a Mountain West football game today at the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex.<\/p>\n
Five SJSU coaches, led by head coach Kenny Niumatalolo, are former UH players. A sixth, O-line coach Ramsen Golpashin, was a graduate assistant for the Rainbow Warriors. There also are five Spartans who are graduates of Hawaii high schools.<\/p>\n
The roots are intertwined. Niumatalolo and defensive pass-game coordinator Brian Norwood were standout two-sport players at Radford High.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad coached Kenny and Brian,\u201d UH head coach Timmy Chang said of Levi Chang, who was a basketball coach with the Rams in the 1980s. \u201cThey were great athletes. They were two of the best people and coaches. I really respect them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niumatalolo recalled: \u201cHe was the JV basketball coach when we won the OIA championship. He was the assistant basketball coach when I was on the varsity. I loved playing for him. I felt his way of coaching and style of basketball fit me. We pressed. We were uptempo and ran. In varsity, we were more methodical and slow paced.\u201d<\/p>\n
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At Saint Louis School in 1997, Chang was a sophomore quarterback and Craig Stutzmann was a senior slotback. Stutzmann committed to UH, where he became part of the Warriors\u2019 dynamic receiving quartet featuring slotback Channon Harris and wideouts Justin Colbert and Ashley Lelie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did see the joy he had playing for the University of Hawaii when I was a (Saint Louis) junior and senior,\u201d said Chang, noting that was influential in his decision to commit to UH.<\/p>\n
Stutzmann grew up in Varsity Circle, just outside UH\u2019s Lower Campus, where the athletic department is located. Also in the area is an apartment once shared by UH linebackers Chris Brown, Pisa Tinoisamoa, Matt Wright and Keani Alapi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hangout for everybody,\u201d said Brown, now UH\u2019s associate head coach. \u201cWe had a picnic table outside. You carved your name into it. Everybody came by to carve their name.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were so many attendees the marked table resembled the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we had the team outside the house, sitting around and talking,\u201d Brown recalled. \u201cAfter practices, that was our hangout. Stutzmann would come over. His little brother (Billy Ray Stutzmann, a future Warrior) would be running around.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2003, Craig Stutzmann was named head coach of Saint Louis\u2019 JV team. He tried to reunite the band, offering coaching jobs to Wright, Jonathan Kauka and La\u2018anui Correa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to get back into coaching,\u201d Brown said. \u201cStutz reached out to me. He called me and said he was getting some of the boys together. I was his defensive coordinator.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crusaders won the JV title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first time coaching,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe had so much fun. It was the best time ever coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now two decades later, it all comes together.<\/p>\n
After a long stint at Navy, Niumatalolo was hired as the Spartans\u2019 head coach in 2024. Stutzmann was invited to implement his spread-and-shred offense. Billy Ray Stutzmann was hired as receivers coach. In January, Norwood was hired, and Golpashin was named successor to former UH center\/guard John Estes. Luke Weaver, who was 2-0 as a UH starter last year and threw the winning touchdown in the 2025 Hawaii Bowl, is now the Spartans\u2019 starting quarterback.<\/p>\n
Niumatalolo used to sell newspaper lineups at Aloha Stadium. Reared in the Mormon Church, Niumatalolo was a quarterback on the UH team that ended BYU\u2019s dominance in the rivalry series in 1989. He owns a home in Manoa. But he has implored his team to push aside the distractions and focus on this key Mountain West game. UH shares that message.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s business at the end of the day,\u201d Brown said of the Warriors\u2019 seeking to rebound from a 1-3 start. \u201cWe\u2019re not where we want to be. We\u2019re thinking of going 1-0 this week. We\u2019re starting all over again. Mistakes have been fixed. We\u2019re going to play some Hawaii football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Stutzmann \u2014 the family patriarch \u2014 is caught between two worlds. When his sons were Warriors, the elder Stutzmann and his father-in-law, Ray Onosaki, set up folding chairs on the hill overlooking the grass practice field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lived the greatest life,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got to watch our kids practice and play. And we traveled to the road games. It was really fun. It was neat when Billy Ray was young, and would have practice in baseball or football. He\u2019d have six or seven UH football players come watch him. It was really neat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said: \u201cGreat memories. Uncle Bill\u2019s the man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Onosaki died in 2016. Bill Stutzmann\u2019s wife went to watch their sons\u2019 dogs this week. But Bill Stutzmann will attend today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to tell you this,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I\u2019ll probably be wearing blue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homecoming or family reunion? It will be a lot of both when Hawaii plays host to San Jose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14596,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-483887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-editors","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}