Hawaii football player earns full scholarship at the best pool party ever
If that headline sounds like the most Hawaii thing ever, just go ahead and watch the video. It's somehow more Hawaii than you could ever imagine.
But it truly was the greatest pool party ever for senior long snapper Brodie Nakama, who has started 36 games as a walk-on for the Rainbow Warriors over the past three seasons.
During an afternoon practice last Friday, head coach Nick Rolovich called his team together and invited the players to spend the rest of the day at the pool next door. As you can imagine, the team couldn't have been happier to get out of pads and into the water.
But during the wet and wild action, the team was told that the high dives were off limit. That is, until Rolovich grabbed a megaphone and said he'd let the players use the diving structures, but only if Nakama went first. Confused and nervous, the senior headed to the top, where he found a letter waiting for him.
As he opened the letter and read it, you could clearly see that whatever was inside caused a near immediate emotional reaction, and his teammates appeared to know what was going on: Their long snapper had earned himself a full scholarship.
Of course, there's only one way to celebrate earning a free ride while standing atop a high dive. It took some coaxing from his teammates, but Nakama took the 10-meter leap as they chanted his name. As soon as Nakama hit the water, they all jumped in the pool to join and congratulate him. It was a pretty spectacular moment.
It seems like college football programs always try to one-up each other as they hand out these surprise scholarships, but Hawaii kept it fairly simple and it resulted in what looked like a pretty awesome day for everyone involved -- but especially for the one kid who deserved it most.
