"We Believe!!!"

12-0.

Never in a million billion years did I think Hawaii could do what they did.

And we were there to see it. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. What a perfect day. We spent the afternoon tailgating with the Zoology grad students, who awesomely prepared, among other things, a fried turkey (memories of Karl's fry parties made me happy). After partying, we had to walk a mile, downhill, to the stadium. This was no biggie, unless of course we lost, and then we would have to trudge back up the hill in the cold, December rain. (Incidentally, our island snow has now lasted 3 weeks. Welcome to the winter rainy season. Side note, the rain isn't really cold.)

We sat at the north end zone, in what we found out later were not our seats at all. Here we are, with Castle, before the game:



Our seats were pretty decent for costing $5. I am technically considered a "student" at UH, since they lack a category for postdocs. While this typically angers me immensely, I have learned to take advantage of the $5 tickets and suck it up. Kyle was my $32 guest, and it was really the best $44* I have spent in Hawaii (*$7 for beer).

The game began dismally. Washington scored on their first drive. We fumbled. Washington scored on their 2nd drive. Colt got sacked. Washington just looked too big and too fast. We were too slow and too nervous. 0-21 after the first quarter. Boy were we sad.

Not as sad as the couple sitting in front of us. They slept through the entire first quarter (slept is really not the right word, more liked passed out). More on them later.

We held the Huskies in the 2nd and even managed to score three. 21-28. Things were starting to look possible.

Third quarter, nothing but defense. Could we pull it off?

4th quarter, Jason Rivers, 40 yard touchdown. WAHOO! When we took the lead 35-28 in the 4th quarter, with 44 seconds left to go, I was worried. That was a lot of time. Cheers of "BCS, BCS, BCS" started to fill the stadium. The pom-pom girls were pretty sure of the win and showed off their new 12-0 tee shirts. Washington got the ball back to Hawaii's 3rd yard line. The pom-pom girls, realizing their impatience, took off their shirts and scowled. Everyone held their breath.

Everyone except the couple in front of us, now joined by the girl's sister, who insisted on badgering the man beside us. He had called them "haole bitches" earlier after they decided to smoke in the stadium. Throughout the game, words were exchanged, cops were called over; it was a nice side-story as long as nothing was going on. Now that our entire season came down to this play, and they were still not watching the field, I grew tired of their antics and pretended to call the cops. They finally shut up and left.

The next-to-the-last play of the game was UH intercepting a well thrown ball to a what appeared to be a wide-open Washington receiver in the endzone. The last play of the game, where Colt took a knee, was about 10 minutes later after fans were cleared from the field. It was incredible.



As you may have heard, Hawaii is going to the Sugar Bowl. This sort of sucks for fans, since it is a long way to travel, and it is a lot closer to Georgia. But I think we'll represent. Being a part of football in Hawaii has been something special. The whole entire state is behind this team. The team motto: "We believe".

Huck the Fuskies, and Damn a Dawg. The Warriors will show those leg humpers how to play football, ya heard! 13-0, 13-0!

Wouldn't that be a sweet? I can honestly say, it has been nice to be a part of something this special. Football, it may be, but damn, it sure does feel good.