HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – It’s official. The University of Hawai‘i will face California in the 2025 Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl at the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex on Christmas Eve.
The Rainbow Warriors (8-4) will make their 11th Hawaii Bowl appearance while this will be the first for the Golden Bears (7-5).
Still, the game will be a homecoming of sorts for several on the team, starting with interim head coach Nick Rolovich, former UH head coach and Rainbow Warrior quarterback.
Current UH head coach Timmy Chang and associate head coach Chris Brown were former teammates of Rolovich.
Chang said, “There’s so much that I learned from him as a player and as a coach, and so I have the utmost respect for Coach Rolovich.”
Brown said, “We were locker mates, so we spent a lot of time together in the locker room and a lot of talking and you know, just getting to know each other and and over the years and but as a player, I mean, I love that guy.”
There are also four players on the Cal roster from Hawaii, including true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who’s thrown for more than 3,000 yards and 17 touchdown passes this season.
“He’s been doing awesome, you know, true freshmen coming in and playing at a high-caliber level,” Chang said. “He’s gonna be able to make a lot of throws that a lot of other quarterbacks can’t.”
The Warriors head into the bowl having posted their highest win total since 2019 and tied for fifth place in the Mountain West with a 5-3 league mark.
UH defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said, “If you don’t wear the H, you don’t represent Hawaii. That’s the way it is. It says Hawaii on your jersey. That H stands for something. It stands for Hawaii. So when you wear that, you are one who defends the state. You are one who represents the state.”
During his playing career, Chang competed in the bowl twice and was the game’s most outstanding player both times.
“It truly is one of the best bowl games in the country. It’s the only game on Christmas Eve and everyone is watching which will showcase not only our program but our university and the state of Hawai‘i. I can’t wait for our players to experience the game and the bowl week activities and what better opponent than the Cal Bears,” said Chang.
Reinebold has coached in previous Hawaii Bowl appearances and reminds his current players of the history and the meaning behind the Christmas Eve clash.
“This game was built for Hawaii because there were a lot of great Hawaii teams that never got to get to a bowl game, so they created this game so that if we had a great team, we would be able to reward that team and play this game. Well, here we go,” Reinebold said.
This will also be the first time UH and Cal will face each other since the 2016 season opener in Australia. Rolovich was Hawaii’s head coach at the time.
The 22nd Sheraton Hawaii Bowl kicks off at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus.
The game will be televised on ESPN and broadcast on ESPN Radio.
Tickets are currently on sale online here and at the UH Ticket Office (Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. HST, closed holidays). Prices range from $30-75.
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