Sean Olvera-Harle was there for Kansei Matsuzawa's historic season as the University of Hawai‘i's starting kicker in 2025. He even had one of the best seats in the house as Matsuzawa's backup.
In 2026, Olvera-Harle has earned the right to take Matsuzawa's spot, with the Tokyo Toe now battling for a spot with the Las Vegas Raiders. After a solid spring and impressive fall camp, Olvera-Harle emerged as special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield's choice as the team's new starting kicker.
"I think my excitement's through the roof," Olvera-Harle told Aloha State Daily following Wednesday's practice, the last before the team departs for its 2026 season opener at Stanford. "I've been obviously training since last year with Kansei and Billy Gowers and all them, but I think it's now it's my time, and I'm just honestly ready to start the game."
Whoever won the job was bound to be burdened with filing the shoes of Matsuzawa, who went 25-for-26 on field goals in the regular season en route to becoming the program's first-ever consensus All-American. The way Olvera-Harle sees it, observing Matsuzawa's historic season can only help.
"I'm hoping to do the exact same thing he did, if not better. I think just watching him perform last year really helped me with mindset and how I'm gonna play," Olvera-Harle said.
Though Olvera-Harle is from Southern California while Matsuzawa moved to the United States from Japan, the two do have similar sporting backgrounds. Like Matsuzawa, Olvera-Harle was a lifelong soccer player before giving football a try. Pestered by his friends at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School because the team needed a kicker, he played high school football for two years. He then attended the University of Oregon as a regular student his freshman year of college.
After a year off from school entirely, Olvera-Harle attended Saddleback College, the California junior college that produced Hawai‘i legend Colt Brennan. He made 11 of his 14 field goal attempts with a long of 47 yards, putting enough tape together to earn a roster spot in Mānoa as a walk-on.
Olvera-Harle played in six games for the 'Bows in 2025 as a kickoff specialist, with 11 of his 32 kickoffs going for touchbacks.
Another important similarity between Olvera-Harle and Matsuzawa? The undying faith Sheffield showed in both before either had started a game for the Rainbow Warriors.
"His leg is big," Sheffield told Aloha State Daily of Olvera-Harle. "In our scrimmage, he hit a 61-yard field goal. When you have a guy that can do that, and he's been pretty accurate, he's hovering around the 80% to 85% mark for all of camp, I just like where he's at, and I think that he's very talented. And if we could just continue to clean up the accuracy and make sure that we block well, he's going to have a special year."
Olvera-Harle, the walk-on, was named the starter over true freshman Hudson Borsari, who joined the 'Bows on a scholarship out of national powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. How long is the leash on Olvera-Harle?
"Very," Sheffield said.
"I'm not even focused on those kind of things," Sheffield continued. "I'm focused on him just making the kicks and doing a great job. In the specialist group, I tell them there's no failures. It's just growth. And so, if he misses three kicks, that's not going to be the end of the world. I know everybody wants Kansei 2.0. But Kansei 1.0 was special enough, (2.0) was once in a generation. That's why he's the first ever unanimous All-American in Hawai‘i football history.
"But like I keep telling everybody, I want it to be about Sean and not Kansei. This is Sean's time to write his story. Kansei wrote his story and is with the Raiders now. We're going to be right here with Sean and let him write his own story."
While Matsuzawa had a year of being Hawai‘i's starting placekicker a year before his 2025 season, Olvera-Harle enters 2026 having never attempted a kick in a Division I game.
"My main goal, field goal-wise," Olvera-Harle says, "is to just make as many as I can, if not all of them."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
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