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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Dogs are cooler than humans</title>

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Dogs are cooler than humans

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Christian Shimabuku

Sports

For multiple weeks, Micah Alejado's status was 

The University of Hawai‘i quarterback played one healthy half of football in the team's season-opening win over Stanford. Since then, his injured right ankle has been one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Rainbow Warriors in 2025. 

Alejado ended up missing two consecutive games, both wins for the Rainbow Warriors, as backup Luke Weaver displayed his full capabilities in victories over 

As the 'Bows enter conference play against rival Fresno State on Saturday at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, there was no hiding UH's intent before or after Tuesday's practice: Alejado will be a full go. 

"He's expected to go this Saturday and be the quarterback," Chang said following Tuesday's practice. 

While speaking to media for the first time since the postgame press conference against Stanford, Alejado reflected on the weeks since 

. He's received treatment on his ankle three times a day. 

"Daily, it was wake up, get treatment before practice, come out, support the guys and try to help coach them up a lot, and then after go back and get treatment again, and then take some time off, and then come back to treatment in afternoon," Alejado said. "I was getting some type of treatment three times a day. It was more so just to be able to stay on top of it. It was hard mentally just coming back and slow process for sure. But it was definitely great for me, and I feel great right now. Probably the best it's been a long time, so it'll be fun."

 in various drills and workouts in practices leading up to the team's game against Portland State, Alejado also got plenty of mental reps in while wearing a headset during both the Sam Houston and Portland State contests. 

"It was definitely a different experience just hearing what the coaches are saying," Alejado said. "Hearing the reactions and hearing the communication for the coaches, I think it's definitely a great experience for somebody to have if they want to go into the coaching level. Seeing how coaches are operating, calling plays. Having a headset and taking a step back and watching, it was fun."

Giving his teammates pointers and seeing how the offense operates from the sideline was a valuable experience for Alejado, but his heart remained set on returning to the field and 

 the redshirt freshman displayed in spurts over the past two seasons. 

Eager as he was to play, Alejado understood he needed to give his ankle time to heal in order to return to the best version of himself. 

"We flew back from Arizona that Sunday and woke up on Monday, and I felt I'm not putting the team in the best position to win," Alejado recalled. "We sat down and talked about it and thought the two weeks would help me a lot, and sat down with trainers about what the recovery process would look like. And it's paying off a lot."

There will be no easing Alejado back into the swing of things. Hawai‘i coaches continued to give intense instruction towards players on Tuesday ahead of the team's rivalry game against Fresno State. 

The Rainbow Warriors and Bulldogs have been conference rivals in both the WAC and Mountain West, with Fresno State holding an all-time advantage of 30-25-1 in the series. 

Saturday's contest, which kicks off at 6 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, will be the last meeting between the 'Bows and Bulldogs for the foreseeable future. Fresno State is 

 in favor of a revamped Pac-12 next summer. 

"The history of Bulldog and Warrior football...those battles that we've had, there's extra history, and love playing them and they love playing us, and it's a good battle," said Chang. "Them leaving and the unknown of playing them again, it is what it is. But we'll just focus on this one."

The Rainbow Warriors and Bulldogs are both 3-1 overall heading into Saturday's contest, but neither team has played a Mountain West game in 2025 prior to Saturday. The game figures to serve as a tone-setter for conference play. 

"What a big game," Chang said. "It happens to be an opponent, a familiar foe that is playing very well, a well-coached team, first-year coach (Matt Entz) that has a great pedigree and is installing that toughness through that old Pat Hill mentality back into that football team. What a challenge for us. Both teams are 3-1. Opening up conference play is pretty exciting. 

"We got to go out there and compete and look at the game plans and then execute the game plans. It was a great practice today, and we need more great practices throughout the week to give us a chance to to perform on Saturday."

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Micah Alejado 091625

<title>Micah Alejado returns to practice ahead of Hawai‘i's Mountain West opener against Fresno…</title>

Alejado was sidelined for consecutive weeks with a right ankle injury.

Micah Alejado returns to practice ahead of Hawai‘i's Mountain West opener against Fresno State

MĀNOA — Cam Barfield knows a thing or two about breaking a drought. Once the University of Hawai‘i's redshirt junior running back got going on Saturday evening, so did the rest of the UH offense in a 23-3 win over Portland State on Saturday night at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. 

Barfield, who entered Saturday without any collegiate touchdowns, served as the offensive catalyst in Hawai‘i's victory over a Portland State team it was heavily favored against with two receiving touchdowns in the second quarter. With the win, Hawai‘i improved to 3-1, its best start as a program since 2019. 

As a high schooler at national powerhouse Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, Barfield ran for 11 touchdowns as a sophomore and began his senior year with a five-touchdown performance against visiting Saint Louis in the fall of 2021. He then spent his first two seasons of collegiate ball at Boston College before transferring to UH. 

Barfield's breakout was a welcome one for the Rainbow Warriors. He had entered Saturday with 50 rushes and 10 receptions in a UH uniform over the past two seasons, none finding the end zone. 

"It was really good," Hawai‘i head coach Timmy Chang said of Barfield's performance. "Not only once, but he found (the end zone) twice. We gave the game ball to Cam. Cam is a really good player. We're gonna keep feeding him the ball. Whether they're in runs, whether it's in the pass game, Cam is special. He's a dynamic player that we have to find a way to get the ball."

 got the start at quarterback in lieu of an injured 

. After a scoreless first quarter, the Rainbow Warriors got on the board with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Weaver to Barfield with 13:09 left in the second quarter.

Barfield promptly put UH back on the board with a 31-yard touchdown reception on a screen pass, giving the 'Bows a 14-0 lead with 9:39 left in the first half. In total, he had four receptions for 50 yards to go with his four rushing attempts for nine yards. Meanwhile, Weaver completed 26 of his 42 pass attempts for 240 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, carrying the ball 12 times for 30 yards. 

Perhaps it had been too long since Barfield reached the end zone, so much so that he forgot how to act once he scored. After his first touchdown, he accidentally headbutted a sidelined Alejado with his helmet on. After his second, he drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that set the Rainbow Warriors back 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff. 

"First in line always gets the headbutt," Barfield joked in the postgame press conference. 

"I think (with) God, it takes time. The last touchdown I scored was high school. It took a while. But I think this one, it was a good one. I can't thank God enough."

A defensive stand on fourth-and-goal kept Portland State scoreless in the first half, the first of two fourth down stops the UH defense had in its own territory in the first half. 

Former Hawai‘i quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele got the start for Portland State. He began the first quarter an efficient 9-for-13 with 71 yards, one of his lone blemishes an interception thrown to Elijah Palmer. In addition to his pick, Palmer finished with a game-high seven tackles, including two for loss. 

Portland State didn't get on the board until a 25-yard field goal from Mathias Uribe with 3:45 left in the third quarter. 

Meanwhile for Hawai‘i, Kansei Matsuzawa stayed perfect on the year with a career-long 44-yard field goal in the third quarter. He then one-upped that with a new career-high in the fourth quarter, a 47-yard field goal that put the 'Bows up 20-3 in the fourth. For good measure, Matsuzawa was summoned upon again late, nailing a 35-yarder with 58 seconds left. In all, he exited Saturday 11-for-11 on field goals for the 2025 season while going 8-for-8 on his extra point tries. 

"Kansei continues to be consistent," Chang said. "His mindset continues to be in the moment, and he forgets about everything that he's done and he just stays in the moment and tries to keep one at a time. He stays right there. He's in a good place, and we're fortunate and lucky to have him."

Next up for Hawai‘i is the start of conference play against Fresno State on Sept. 20. The game will kick off at 6 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. 

"It's gonna be a great game," Chang said of the upcoming Fresno State matchup. "The fans, we want them to be loud, we want them to support us, and we're going to need them. We're going to need them in our corner for the next 60 minutes against a really good 3-1 team. And we 

might not be able to play Fresno for a while

Hawaii football homecoming 091325

<title>Barfield breaks out and Matsuzawa stays perfect as Hawai‘i football defeats Portland State</title>

The Rainbow Warriors are off to their best start since 2019 after a homecoming victory over the Vikings.

Barfield breaks out and Matsuzawa stays perfect as Hawai‘i football defeats Portland State

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

The state Department of Education is taking heat after the state Auditor revealed a classroom air conditioning project riddled with incompetence and mismanagement.

 Tuesday about a pair of DOE projects to air condition Hawai‘i public school classrooms, after a 2016 announcement by then-Gov. David Ige that he would cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of that year.

In May 2016, DOE received $100 million for the Cool Classrooms Initiative, a project to install air conditioning units in classrooms throughout the state. But not even the state Auditor is sure about how that money was actually spent.

“We fully expected that the department would be able to verify what was spent, where it was spent, and what it was spent on,” the audit report reads. “DOE was unable to do so with complete confidence or certainty.”

Ultimately, the report was able to determine that the program spent about $122.8 million and cooled 838 classrooms. This led to an average of $125,253 per classroom.

About $25 million of the project funds were paid to seven design and project management firms, with another $78 million spent on construction.

The report describes a disorganized enterprise at the heart of DOE: missing or conflicting DOE documents, hasty retrofits of aging public school buildings, and money wasted on strategies that never panned out.

The vast majority of classrooms cooled were on O‘ahu, with more than $9 million spent on one school — Nānākuli High and Intermediate — to install 112 air conditioning systems in 63 classrooms. Several other schools, including Kahakai Elementary, the only Hawai‘i Island school included in the project, never saw their projects go to construction.

The decision for which schools got cooled supposedly came from an average temperature ranking of their geographic region, but the audit reported that many schools in the program were not highly ranked on that list, and that DOE officials could not explain how specific classrooms were selected.

To remove the need for electrical upgrades, DOE focused on solar-powered air conditioning, but the cost of solar panels limited the systems’ period of operation to merely five hours. And because many old classrooms still relied on jalousie windows, those windows had to be sealed with plexiglass — leading to classrooms with even poorer ventilation that couldn’t be air conditioned through all hours of the school day.

Even after successful installations, many of the solar systems and conditioning units failed or didn’t work properly, were installed poorly or were damaged, leading to estimated repair costs — again, undated and contradicting DOE documents made an accurate accounting impossible — between $3.3. million and $6 million.

While Ige and DOE declared that they had successfully cooled 1,000 classrooms in 2017, the general failure of the Cool Classrooms Initiative to actually cool classrooms led to a follow-up, the School Directed AC Program, in 2019.

This project was funded through remaining Cool Classrooms Initiative funds and would allow schools to request an electrical assessment to determine how many air conditioning systems the school’s electrical system could bear. Based on those assessments, schools would be authorized install air conditioners themselves.

The School Directed AC Program appears to have been even more haphazard than the Cool Classrooms Initiative, with next to no oversight or record keeping by the DOE. The Auditor was never able to obtain a DOE list of which schools participated in the program — as with many such inquiries, the report relied on records kept by contractors — and the department did not track how many air conditioners were installed through the program.

Ultimately, the audit described the program as an “afterthought” for DOE, and noted that, at the time of the investigation, it was unclear whether the program even still existed at all.

DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi submitted a letter in response to the audit that noted that “virtually none” of the key managers involved are still with the program. The letter added that DOE began “protracted measures to enhance procedures for the School Directed AC Program” in 2024.

[{"type":"text","text":"Hayashi issued a similar statement to Aloha State Daily Wednesday."}]

“The initiative was launched with urgency and good intentions — responding to real heat challenges affecting our students and staff — but was undermined by flawed execution, inconsistent oversight, and ineffective systems at the time,” read that statement. “Our priority now is to apply the lessons from this report. That includes improving internal accountability, ensuring proper planning for future projects, and delivering on our commitment to safe, comfortable learning environments for all students.

“We are taking meaningful steps to improve and rebuild confidence in how we serve our schools and communities,” Hayashi’s statement concluded.

The audit included a response to Hayashi’s letter, which the Auditor argued missed the point of the audit.

“Being able to account for use of public funds is quite simply a basic, fundamental responsibility of the (DOE),” the audit reads. “It is noteworthy that the Superintendent’s letter does not address how, going forward, (the DOE) will ensure it is accountable for its use of public funds.”

[{"type":"text","text":"DOE did not respond to further questions from ASD, which included:"}]

Who was the administrator in charge of the design of the Cool Classrooms Initiative? Who took over the project after their resignation in 2017?

Who was in charge of the School Directed AC Program?

How often does DOE follow up with contractors for status reports?

Has anything changed about the DOE’s record-keeping system since 2016?

What “ineffective systems at the time” is Hayashi referring to?

How was information about the School Directed AC Program conveyed to school administrators?

What standards do DOE follow when selecting contractors?

How many classrooms are currently considered unacceptably hot?

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Dogs are cooler than humans

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Dogs are cooler than humans

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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