HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The vibes were high at T.C. Ching field as the University of Hawaii football team opened up training camp in year three under head coach Timmy Chang.

Day one of training camp means football season is right around the corner. Despite preseason polls projecting Hawaii to finish 9th in the 12 team conference, optimism around the program is sky high.

“We want them to keep that energy, you know, it’s a process and it’s the consistency to stay through and keep it all the way to game one,” Chang told reporters. “Game one is a little ways away and so as long as they’re getting better every day and the energy is high and the want to, to get better is there, they’re going to be fine.”

UH ended last year with a ton of momentum, winning 3 of their last 4 games and there’s much to build on.

For the offense, they look to continue making strides in the run and shoot system, led by returning starters Brayden Schager and Pofele Ashlock.

“Every year you have the run and shoot it becomes better, It’s just seeing little things that I see Pofele do that I can know what he’s doing before he does it, that’s when it starts to get good,” Brayden Schager said. “that’s when you can already see I’m anticipating what he’s doing, getting the ball out earlier.”

‘It’s all in body movement and everything, You know what I mean?” Pofele Ashlock said. “It goes deeper to just a route, we really had a good communication with everything that we’re doing and so it’s been amazing.”

For the defense, they know its on them to ramp up the intensity.

‘For us to come up with the amount of energy that we did have today, you know, It’s great,” Safety Peter Manuma said. “First day of camp, it’s always going to be high energy, but we’re seeing how much energy we’re going to have throughout camp.”

Fall Training camp continues through August.

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