Warriors’ celebratory turnover club a blend of Polynesian traditions

For the Hawaii football team, happiness is creative-service specialist Trevor Camello in full sprint.

That means Camello is racing to take photos of a Rainbow Warrior raising a “war” club in jubilation after creating a turnover.

“It’s such a great celebration,” associate head coach Chris Brown said. The player “puts the necklace on. He’s given the war club, and he holds it up to the crowd. (Teammates) shoot water into the air. The whole crowd goes crazy. Everybody is screaming and yelling. And there are some pretty epic pictures that go viral because nobody has (a club like that) in the country.”

Safety Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen, who made a momentum-turning pick in the nationally televised opener against Stanford, said: “It’s being prideful, celebrating our wins within the game.”

Following the 2023 season, Brown sought a way to celebrate takeaways. Several NCAA teams have turnover chains or belts. Georgia awards golden shoulder pads with spikes. Arizona has a cactus-shaped “sword” in which, after forcing a turnover, the recovered football is spiked onto it.

“We wanted to do something cultural to show our warrior background,” Brown said.

Brown contacted former UH teammate Afatia Thompson, who is president of Tihati Productions, the state’s largest entertainment company. Dressed as a warrior, Anapogi Tevaga — a Tihati performer for three decades — leads the Warriors from the locker room onto the field each game at the Ching Complex.

Thompson consulted with Umi Kai, a renowned master of traditional Polynesian weapons. Kai produced several designs, including a pahi kaua (war knife) made with the bill of a swordfish.

Afatia Thompson’s cousin, KC Thompson, created a wooden club covered with shark teeth. But Afatia Thompson said that version needed to be modified because it was feared the sharp teeth would be “dangerous for the players when they’re excited and waving it around.”

In the final version, KC Thompson carved koa into a club with a rounded elongated-shaped head. Jagged edges were carved to simulate shark teeth. Mother of pearl were embedded into the club.

“Almost like Thor’s axe, so to speak,” Afatia Thompson said.

KC Thompson used coconut sennit to string a boar’s tusk into a necklace to accompany the war club.

“Traditional warriors wore (the boar tusks) as a symbol of strength,” Afatia Thompson said. “It also is supposed to help the warriors embody the ferocity of a wild boar.”

Afatia Thompson said the club is not an authentic weapon. He said UH’s turnover club was intended to be a modern interpretation of a lei o mano (traditional shark-toothed club). Afatia Thompson — who is a mix of Hawaiian, Samoan and Tokelauan ancestry — said UH’s club also is a blend of Polynesian traditions.

“We’re Polynesia’s team,” Afatia Thompson said. “I’ve always felt that way. There is no other college football team that represents all of the Pacific.”

The Thompson family donated the club and necklace to the Warriors.

Brown said the club “is special. It represents us. It represents our Polynesian culture and the warrior spirit. … When you see it up close, it’s pretty powerful.”

The club also has the nickname — “sasa stick.”

“Spankings, lickings — ‘don’t make a sasa of you,’” Brown said of the Samoan phrase.

Brown said the club and necklace are stored in a bag inside his locker. During games, Dayne Maeva, UH’s assistant director of football operations, keeps the club and necklace under the defensive unit’s bench.

In the Sept. 27 road game against Air Force, Matagi Thompson — Afatia Thompson’s son — made an interception. Smoke got in Brown’s eyes. Afatia Thompson and Brown are long-time friends who went against each other in every UH practice in 1999.

“Linebackers versus running backs,” said Brown, a former middle linebacker. “Afatia was a monster. He was the best blocker. When he hit you, you knew who he was. … Matagi’s like a nephew to me. To see Matagi hold (the club) up, I got choked up. It was a full-circle moment.”

Watching the interception on TV, KC Thompson called his cousin, saying: “We had to wait a whole year for my nephew to touch the club I made?”