Hilltoppers in Hawaii: News 40 was there with the recap
WAIKIKI, Hi.- The Western Kentucky Hilltopper football team faced off against the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors for the first time. There’s no history between the teams but there is some history with the head coaches.
WKU head coach Tyson Helton actually started his coaching career at Hawaii as a graduate assistant in 2000.
“He says he got married and took his wife April on a four year honeymoon. So there are probably worse ways to start a life than getting married and moving to Hawaii for four years,” said WKU Athletic Director Todd Stewart.
And even more history…the new head coach of the Rainbow Warriors, Timmy Chang, was the quarterback at Hawaii for the four years Coach Helton was there. It was the first time Helton and Chang faced off as coaches.
WKU showed up, winning the game 49-17.
“Honestly just preparation throughout the week. We work hard with coach and he pushes us every single day. He makes practice so difficult that the games are just so easy so we come out and do our job and the plays just kind of come to us,” said Defensive Back Kaleb Oliver.
Dozens of family members and WKU fans made the trip across the Pacific Ocean to see the Hilltoppers play.
“It wasn’t like a splash of red, it was a sea of red in the endzone. And that makes a difference. I know when our players look over and see that it inspires them and I’m glad we had a lot of family of players that were here and they got to experience it because this was truly unique. We’ve never played here before, we’ll probably never play here again so the people that were here to experience it will remember it for a long time,” said Stewart.
Truly a game, and a trip, they’ll never forget.
“To travel 4500 miles and then play a game in two days you could easily be had, the way we played and came out the way we had was huge and then actually by winning we’re 2-0 for the first time since 2015,” said Stewart.
Let’s make it 3-0 when the Hilltoppers play Indiana in two weeks.
