As I was watching the TV screen at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, I posted the following on facebook
posted 10/31/2015
Well, the next day it happened! Norm Chow was fired!
While I long thought Norm Chow was poison to the program, I also had this to say on facebook!
posted 11/01/2015
(note: OK, before I go on, I just want to clarify what a "Dre Day dance" is for those unfamiliar with 90's era gangsta rap! "Dre Day dance" occurs towards the end of the "Dre Day" video where Dr Dre dissed Eazy-E, the character playing Eazy-E was dancing with the sign "Will Rap for Food")
Usually, I would favor the Athletics Department wait until the end of the season before making coaching changes. Coaching changes during the season is very disruptive, and is usually done just to appease angry fans!
On the other hand, I am glad Norm Chow is gone from the program. He was poison to the program that goes way beyond "wins & loses"!
One of the first things he did when he was hired to be UH football coach was to ban his players from having long hair!
He also got rid of the coolest mascot in college sports : Vili the Warrior
I wrote about in a blog post
However, there are conspiracy theories that Vili the Warrior was "pushed out" by the UH athletic department and the new coach.
There is no evidence on that, but I understand why such conspiracy theories came out!
For one thing, the new UH football coach started imposing regulations on the player's grooming style.
Under the new rules, the UH football players will no longer be allowed to have long hair, WHICH IS THE MOST STUPIDEST RULE ON EARTH!
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-02/sports/sns-mct-free-time-is-over.-chow-time-begins-for-real-today-20120802_1_camp-chow-time-norm-chow
The long hair was a major part of the UH-Warrior mystique in the previous decade. It made the UH haka/ha'a more real when the Warriors had the wild hair while making their chants!
Northwest Hawaii Times, photo by Steve Kajihiro
Coach Chow claimed it was about "player safety" mentioning the long hair and football helmets interfere with each other.
But then, why did Chow also banned the players having beards or earings, both of which are covered under the helmets and therefore, had ZERO impediment to "player safety"?
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-02/sports/sns-mct-free-time-is-over.-chow-time-begins-for-real-today-20120802_1_camp-chow-time-norm-chow
Chow has learned that only part of his duties are on the field. Since being hired in December, he assembled a staff, dealt with such matters as fertilizer purchases for the practice field, and imposed a list of no-nos: No long hair, no beards, no earrings, no tardiness.
In other words, Coach Chow wants to change the UH Warriors image. Boooooo!
Some will say "who cares about image, we just want to win".
However, the reality is that marketing is a MAJOR part of college sports!
That's why teams have mascots representing wild animals or warriors (ie Trojans, Spartans, and of course, the UH Warriors.)
They need an agressive image that the fans want to be a part of.
They need an image that the upcoming recruits want to join in!
That's why UH went from Rainbows to Warriors!
That's why we had Vili the Warrior!
That's why the wild hair was so cool! It gave the team a "rock n roll" edge mixed in with the traditional Polynesian warrior image.
The traditional Polynesian warriors didn't have crew cuts!
So there's no reason for Coach Chow to go against that tradition. Coach Chow is bringing the worst aspect of the 1800's missionary mentality with his rules against long, wild hair and beards!
Some will say "this long hair, short hair stuff is just superstition".
The rules against long hair was also bad luck to the Native Americans recruited to fight in the US war in Vietnam
“THE TRUTH ABOUT LONG HAIR”
As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War, special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.
With the usual enticements, the well-proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.
Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.
When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ‘sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ‘sixth sense,’ their ‘intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ‘read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.
So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.
Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.
Some will still insist it is all superstition! I look at results! The results are that those from Native American and Polynesian cultures value long hair as part of the warrior mystique! Suppressing that part of the mystique is equivalent to saying "eff your culture, you are colonized now!"! Suppressing that part of the mystique suppressing the warrior spirit needed to rally and win games!
It's just like current University of Texas football coach Charlie Strong banning his players from owning guns! Hello, you're in Texas, fool! Strong calls it "discipline"! I call it a suppression of his player's culture! It's equivalent to telling his players "eff your Texas culture". And we wonder why the once powerful University of Texas team has dramatically declined the last few years! And the other Texas schools are laughing at the University of Texas!
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So why else is Norm Chow poison to the program?
Here's what I mentioned in a blog post "2014: Year in Review"
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-in-review.html (scroll past all the stuff what about music videos of the year, and down to the part about sports!)
Norm Chow was a good assistant coach. He is not head coach material. That much was said when a reporter who knew Chow from his BYU days wrote
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865600530/Norm-Chow-didnt-learn-from-LaVell-Edwards-example.html?pg=all
At one point, I ventured my opinion: Stick with an assistant’s job, I told him; he was too thin-skinned to be a head coach. He would hate it. I had been around him enough to know that he collected grudges against fellow coaches and media, and he dreaded talking to reporters. Why not do what he does best — run offenses? Why tempt the Peter Principle? Not all good assistant coaches make good head coaches. A head coach has to be able to deal with media and criticism and a lot of things that Chow doesn’t like and that have nothing to do with coaching, which brings me to …
then the writer mentioned how then-BYU head coach LaVell Edwards was better able to deal with the press.
That article came up because earlier this year, Norm Chow yelled with rage when a mildly-critical sportswriter Dave Reardon showed up to practice.
Chow, who later apologized, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he was angry about a column that Reardon had written that was critical of the coach’s decision to hire Kevin Clune, the Utah State linebackers coach, as defensive coordinator (even coaches with 4-20 records can’t be second-guessed).Predictably, that backfired. Don’t like negative coverage? Then create more. Reardon’s column the next day ran at the top of Page 1: “Coach’s tantrum adds another loss to bleak record.” Talk about a gift for a columnist who is looking for something to write about during the dull spring season.
Add to all that,
- Norm Chow's stupid rule against player's long hair (nevermind that the great teams of the June Jones era had long, wild hair)
- his slander of Blake Muir transferring because he had "no friends on the team"
- his saying he won't be easy on his QBs, whereas June Jones hired Dan Morrison as QB coach to be "the soothing voice in the quarterback's ear".
- and of course, his inability to beat good teams
And to add to that, when there was a hurricane warning in 2014, when the university had to cancel classes, when most workplaces were closed, Norm Chow insisted on continuing football practice sessions!
Heavy rain, strong wind and the threat of power outages will not prevent the University of Hawaii football team from practicing Friday.
"We'll find a place to practice," head coach Norm Chow said following Thursday's fourth session of training camp. "If we have to go inside, we'll go inside. We have to do something."
Klum Gym is the only indoor facility that can accommodate the Warriors. Klum, which has wooden floors, is used mostly for intramural basketball and volleyball events.
Chow joked that Washington, UH's season-opening opponent on Aug. 30, is not likely to agree to a ceasefire until the weather improves.
"Nobody is feeling bad for Hurricane Iselle," Chow said, "and nobody is feeling sorry for our team. Washington isn't going to stop practicing. We have to keep working."
In other words, a game is more important to Norm Chow than the safety of his players!
Norm Chow had to be ordered by UH administration to cancel practice
head coach Norm Chow and the rest of the coaching staff were ordered off the field as a directive from the UH administration. Organized team activities, such as practice, would not be allowed due to the campus closure.
Winds of up to 60 miles per hour and torrential rain soaked the island state overnight. On Thursday, UH administration closed all of its campuses on Friday, including the Manoa campus. The weather held up for much of the team's practice until a downpour during the final minutes of the one-hour workout.
While the players "chose" to practice after Chow was ordered off the field, I put "chose" in quotation marks, because I think Chow pressured the team to continue practice just to show his bosses he can't be bossed around!
If I was the coach, I'll just tell the team "Go home already! Take care of your family!"
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And of course, in sports, it's all about wins & loses!
Norm Chow was supposed to be a replacement for Coach Mack. Mack was "retired" after one slightly-below average season (2011) that followed a very great season (2010). The 2010 team had great offensive players in their final year. 2011 was a rebuilding year with inexperienced offensive players. The defense was great and experienced, but the offense was inexperienced! But the fans were so spoiled by the success of the June Jones era that even a slightly-below average season (2011) that followed a very great season (2010) was a firing offense!
I really felt Coach Mack should've been given another chance! To those who didn't agree, I point the finger at you for putting us in this Norm Chow mess!
Every singe season under Coach Mack was better than ANY season under Norm Chow!
Coach Mack's assistants (ie Dave Aranda, Nick Rolovich) had great success at other universities after Coach Mack was "retired"
While I'm not sure if Coach Mack (or even June Jones) is willing to come back to UH! But I really think we should try get Dave Aranda or Nick Rolovich to come back and take over!
Some might ask for Rich Miano or Cal Lee to take over! But since they were coaching high school the last few years, I think it will be better for Aranda or Rolovich to take over the UH team since they had more recent college coaching experience!
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I admit in another blog post that I thought Norm Chow bringing back the Tight End (TE) & Fullback(FB) positions to the team was going to help! Whereas June Jones & Coach Mack were successful with undersized guys (ie Chad Owens, Davone Bess, Kealoha Pilares, Micheal Brewster, Britton Komine, etc) playing a major role in the offense, I thought that maybe (just maybe), adding a TE and a FB would bring some size to balance the smaller guys on the team. However, Norm Chow just phased out the remaining small guys (ie Miah Ostrowski) and not replacing the small guys who graduated!
The next coach will probably have to bring back to small overlooked guys back in the mix, while still keeping the TE and FB to bring the muscle and the balance to the offense!
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The next coach will most likely have to accept the Rainbow symbol! June Jones got rid of the Rainbow symbol because he thought it was "gay". Years after he left, former Athletics Director Ben Jay brought the Rainbow symbol back! At this point, there will NOT be any patience with anyone getting rid of Rainbow symbol for being "gay".
Learn more about the Rainbow symbol and its controversies at
"UH sports nicknames" - February 2013
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/02/uh-sports-nicknames.html
"The Rainbows are back" - May 2013
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-rainbows-are-back.html
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Also, to learn about the disgraceful treatment Coach Mack got from the university after his slightly-less-than average season after the WAC championship season ...............
check out
"Coach was forced to settle, Donovan testifies" (Star Advertiser :9/25/2013) )
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2012/09/25/hawaii-news/coach-was-forced-to-settle-donovan-testifies/
