When the University of Hawai‘i football program's coaches decided to shelf returning starting quarterback Micah Alejado for the vast majority of the team's spring practices, that meant the signal-callers behind him were about to receive a windfall of live reps during practice sessions.
Following the departures of Luke Weaver and Dermaricus Davis via the NCAA transfer portal following the 2025 season, only two quarterbacks other than Alejado were on the UH roster this spring following movement in the transfer portal, and both were new to campus in January. Bjorn Jurgensen joined the Rainbow Warriors after redshirting at the University of Virginia in the fall, while O‘ahu native Maika Eugenio enrolled early after graduating from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
In his first year as UH's quarterbacks coach, Chad Kapanui built a room full of rapport, where the four players in the position group became close friends and spent ample time with each other off the field. With Alejado the lone returner in the group, the spring semester figured to be a time where Jurgensen and Eugenio would compete with each other on the field while building a bond off it.
Though they're both freshmen competing for the same spot, both Eugenio and Jurgensen spoke respectfully of each other throughout the spring and offered each other pointers on the field. It turns out the two go back a much longer way than converging on the UH-Mānoa campus in January.
"It's funny. We've known each other for a while and it's just a pretty cool, full circle moment, just to be here with him and compete with him," Jurgensen told Aloha State Daily of Eugenio. "We're both getting each other better, and it's been really fun."
Says Eugenio of Jurgensen: "We actually met each other in the sixth grade at a competition. I love seeing him out here. He's a good dude. Love competing with him, love throwing with him, love doing drills with him. It's just great. We both get each other better every day, and I'm just blessed."
In the summer of 2018, the Jurgensen and Eugenio families were among the many across the country to make the trip to Fayetteville, Ga. for The Duel, a national competition put on by NFA Quarterback Academy, which attracts the nation's best QBs across a bevy of age groups.
The two-day competition was measured by an intricate point system that was out of 100. A 10-year-old Eugenio wowed onlookers with 50-yard throws and won the sixth grade division with 94 points. He was the event's highest finisher, surpassing the point totals of all the high schoolers at the event. Not far behind was Jurgensen, the runner-up in the division. The top three finishers posed for a photo afterwards.
Eight years later, the paths of Eugenio and Jurgensen brought each of them to UH, where they'll both vie to be Alejado's backup for the 2026 season. That competition has carried over from spring ball to spring workouts and will continue through fall camp.
The Rainbow Warriors are unlikely to release a depth chart until the week of their 2026 opener at Stanford on Aug. 29, but Kapanui says each present plenty to like.
"When you're looking for a quarterback in the recruiting process, you got to look for someone that has everything from a high IQ, could throw the ball well and the ball jumps out of their hands. Both of those guys are guys that can throw it and sling it," Kapanui says of Eugenio and Jurgensen.
"Those guys want to learn. When you recruit a quarterback and they're willing to learn, to come into the meeting room and always want to sit down and ask questions, that's so important for this offense. They're doing a great job, they're coming in trying to learn the offense, and it's been good the whole time working with them."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
