Aloha means goodbye to best intentions

As I stepped off the plane in Honolulu on Wednesday, Nick Rolovich was staring right at me.

Well, a large full-length cover photo of Rolovich on the back page of the Star Bulletin anyway. Rolovich, the former Marin Catholic High quarterback from Novato, California was recognized as No. 30 on the Star Bulletin’s countdown of the 100 greatest players in University of Hawaii football history. So I called Nick at the football office and left a phone message about getting together.

Then, on Thursday, I discovered that another former Marin Catholic and U of H star, Travis LaBoy, was coaching in a clinic in Manoa. Wow. So I decided right then and there to hop in my rental car and drive to the U of H campus and see LaBoy AND Rolovich together at the same time.

Imagine my luck?

Well, negotiating a car on the tight and crooked streets of Wakiki Beach is like playing Rubik’s Cube. I got lost trying to drive to the campus – passing approximately 27 ABC Stories in the process I might note -- then I had to walk through two parking garages to find the U of H football office on the third floor where I was directed to a lecture hall of another football clinic on the first floor where a coach informed me that Rolovich was on vacation and the football camp that LaBoy (who was No. 36 on the U of H all-time football list … 36^th? He made it to the NFL and played in the Super Bowl? 36^th???!!! Top 25 at least) was a part of was actually at Kapi’olani Park, which is right across the street from the hotel where I was staying. But the camp ended on Wednesday.

My luck.

It turned out that Rolovich and his family were attending a wedding in Novato. And LaBoy, with his foot in a cast following total reconstructive surgery for playing for the Arizona Cardinals, was back in California, too.