Rolo: From bozo to mojo

A career that some of his teammates thought would never exist.

Hawaii’s Nick Rolovich has a few people from Marin County, California, really confused.

He has rolled the Warriors to five straight wins. He beat a hyped, Sports Illustrated-cover-worthy Fresno State team on national television. And after becoming an overnight icon on the islands, Marinites are wondering when this former football bozo found his mojo.

Just ask Max Driscoll, former linebacker and captain of the Marin Catholic Wildcat’s defensive squad, the prep school Rolovich graduated from in 1998.

In his last game as a high school football player, a playoff match-up with Sonoma High, Driscoll was pumped. He would never play the game again in full pads, and he wanted this one to be memorable. But once Driscoll discovered that his star quarterback, Dan Munoz, was out with a debilitating injury, he cringed.

“Here comes Nick Rolovich, some baseball pitcher [Marin Catholic coaches] thought would have a magic arm,” said Driscoll. “They should of checked to see if he had any aim.”

According to a good number of the football players that played in the league (MCAL), Rolo had a hefty gun, but he always overthrew his target.

“I don’t think there was one time that entire game he didn’t overthrow a receiver,” said Driscoll.

The Wildcats lost that game. Driscoll told the Garden Island his career ended in failure because of Nick Rolovich. He said it jokingly.

Almost six years later, Driscoll was sitting at a pub with his father watching college football on ESPN. He was watching the now infamous Fresno State game that took place a little over a week ago.

There was Rolovich. Older, but not much bigger.

On his first snap, he overthrows Lelie on a routine timing pattern wide-right. The Driscolls have a good laugh.

“Just like old times, huh Rolo?” Max remembers saying to his father.

But it wasn’t at all like old times.

As the Driscolls kept watching, they marvelled at how efficiently Rolo was running one of the best offenses in the country. They wondered how the guy they used to yell “throw-low” to has now become “Rolo,” an island phenom picked by June Jones to play over the equally loved Timmy Chang.

Larry Gondola, Athletic Director for Marin Catholic and the man who brought the Wildcats to year-after-year MCAL titles in the 90’s, said Rolovich always had potential. But he never thought his roots would prepare him for Jone’s run-and-shoot offense.

“I had left Marin Catholic to coach college when Rolovich took over the reigns,” said Gondola. “He had an incredible arm, but they never used it over there. They would run the ball 25-30 times a game. Rolo never threw.”

Gondola said Rolo thought he might learn something like the run-and-shoot at San Francisco City College, where he played for two years before coming to Hawaii. But they never ran that kind of offense. He was never able to prepare for Jone’s style of play.

He did well, though, earning All League honors and recognition from both Hawaii and Colorado State. But Gondola says that Rolo was blessed with incredible receivers. “You could throw it anywhere and those guys would be able catch it.”

So when Gondola heard that Rolo was replacing the injured Timmy Chang earlier this season, he was nervous. He said Rolovich was a great kid, and he would hate to see him struggle in front of thousands on television.

Even Gondola was surprised to see what Rolovich could do.

“He was never schooled in the run-and-shoot prior to his Hawaii tenure, and there he was running it like he had been doing it for years.”

Gondola’s sentiment was similar to Driscoll’s. How did he do it? How did Rolo learn Jone’s offense so quickly. How did his wild arm get tame enough to throw the way he has thrown in the last five games.

“It’s just one of those things…” said Gondola, “where a kid is givin a ball, told to run a very specific offense, and rose to the occasion.

He stepped up, big time.

And it is not a matter of skill more than time and place. Chang was injured, Rolovich was standing there waiting for a chance, and when the opportunity came, he opened the door. Now he is sponging it for everything it’s worth.

“We are all watching him back here,” said Gondola of his tight-knit football community in Marin County. “We are proud of him and we all wish him well this season and for the rest of his career.”

A career that some of his teammates thought would never exist.

“I never thought Rolovich, of all people, would be on national television,” Driscoll said of his former teammate.

“What a difference six years make. Maybe I should have kept playing.”