Aloha Everybody!
We just finished our first live scrimmage of spring yesterday and it was quite exciting. I made one catch during the scrimmage and it was pretty nice to finally experience the college game in a live setting. Spring football has been great so far, we have great fan support here and it’s exciting to come out to practice on a daily basis and continue to get better. Maurice Jones-Drew, the former UCLA running back and current Jacksonville Jaguars star, came by practice on Saturday and gave us a few words of encouragement. My message for today’s blog is to always work hard to achieve your goals. Football is a very tough and physical game but you must learn to embrace it and make it fun to challenge yourself on a daily basis so that you may improve. In my experiences here at UCLA, I found that coaches will take notice of a guy working hard and will begin to work you in to more and more opportunities to get on the field. Remember to continue to work hard even when you think nobody is watching. I will keep everybody posted on how the rest of spring ball goes and I hope everything is going well at HFS and back home. Happy Easter to you all and God Bless!
Aloha,
Ekolu Soon
ekolusoon News, The Next Level
Aloha Everybody,
This is Ekolu Soon blogging from UCLA. I just wanted to say that I am very honored to be able to blog for the HFS website and I hope I can provide insight on playing college football. I am a 2008 graduate of The Kamehameha Schools where I played slot receiver. I also participated in Basketball and Track while I was at Kamehameha. I started attending Hawaii Football School this past November when I was preparing to come to UCLA. I knew that the staff at Hawaii Football School was filled with great football players and there is nobody better to learn from than guys that have already been there and experienced it all. Hawaii Football School helped prepare me for the next level because I was able to learn different tips and techniques that are expected by college football coaches. Aside from the extra practice and competition, the most valuable thing that I got from attending Hawaii Football School was the concept of always following your dreams. As a child I would attend the UH football games and I would always aspire to be like Coach Chad and the rest of the coaches at HFS playing on the turf at Aloha Stadium. I knew that playing college football was my dream and now I am very blessed to have the opportunity to actually play Division I college football. Never let anyone tell you that you cannot accomplish your dreams and always chase your dreams because you can truly achieve them with dedication and hard work. I can speak from experience that we Hawaii boys can play at the next level and I just would like everyone to know that you should never be discouraged because we do not get the respect we deserve from the college football world. We do not get the exposure that mainland players get simply because we live in the middle of the Pacific. The mainland players may be bigger than us and get more exposure from colleges but local boys have the most important ingredient needed in football and that is heart!
Right now we are just finishing up our off-season lifting program and switching our focus towards spring ball. We will start practicing the first week of April and I am really looking forward to strapping on the pads and getting to work. The work in the weight room and school is definitely hard but I am just keeping my eyes on the prize and imagining how good it will feel when I finally get to experience the roar of the crowd when we run out of the tunnel at the Rose Bowl! Final exams take place this week so I’m just taking care of business in the classroom before I get to come home for spring break! Hopefully I will get to see all of you at the school on Sunday! Remember to always follow your dreams because anything is possible if you put your heart and mind to it. Mahalo for reading my entry and God Bless!
Aloha,
Ekolu Soon
ekolusoon The Next Level
