Monday, July 13, 2026 | 2 a.m.
This offseason, University of Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado is routinely clocked astatine 4:45 a.m.
With a lights-outs bedtime of 8:30 p.m., Alejado awakens astatine 4 successful the morning, showers, and past arrives astatine UH astatine 4:45 a.m. Maybe earlier, ne'er later.
“I effort to beryllium the archetypal 1 there,” Alehado, 21, said of the 6 a.m. start to conditioning drills. “Start warming up my assemblage and get acceptable for the workout. I’m getting older. The assemblage takes a small spot longer to get warmed up now.”
Entering his 3rd twelvemonth — and 2nd arsenic QB1 — with the Rainbow Warriors, Alejado has embraced his enactment role.
“I privation to acceptable the example,” said Alejado, whose summertime docket is built astir the Warriors’ training.
He attended Saturday’s UFC 329 combat at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, wherever his parents ain a home. He is scheduled to question to Honolulu today, enactment successful Monday’s greeting workout astatine UH, and past instrumentality to Las Vegas that day up of this week’s Mountain West Media Days. Alejado, moving back Cam Barfield, linebacker Jamih Otis, and nickelback Elijah Palmer will correspond the Warriors during Wednesday’s session. All are alumni of Bishop Gorman High School, a nationalist shot powerhouse in Las Vegas.
While galore precocious schoolhouse graduates don’t spot each different until their class’ 10th reunion, UH appears to person established a Bishop Gorman alumni association. There are 16 erstwhile Gaels connected the Warriors’ 2026 progressive roster. Associate caput coach Chris Brown and quarterbacks coach Chad Kapanui also coached astatine Bishop Gorman.
“Gorman played a immense portion successful each our lives,” Alejado said. “It’s a frightened place. It decidedly acceptable america connected the close way of life. Looking backmost connected it — our lifestyles, our signifier schedules, everything that happened with schoolhouse and shot and disconnected the tract — it was mentation for beingness aft precocious schoolhouse and going to college. It made the modulation truthful overmuch easier.”
Alejado, successful actuality, has been grooming since his hanabata days in Ewa Beach. His begetter was a backmost at Pearl City High. Paul Alejado made his left-handed lad besides signifier throwing with his close hand, conscionable successful case. Micah Alejado can accurately propulsion right-handed passes up to 30 yards.
Galu Tagovailoa, begetter of Atlanta Falcons’ QB Tua Tagovailoa, was Alejado’s youth-league caput coach.
Alejado moved to Las Vegas ahead of his freshman twelvemonth at Saint Louis School. Jon Amano, a former Hawaii resident who coaches in Las Vegas, taught Alejado the intricacies of the run-and-shoot discourtesy that UH uses. Bishop Gorman’s West Coast discourtesy has run-and-shoot elements.
“At Gorman, we were grooming already successful January and getting acceptable for the play successful August,” Alejado recalled. “Early-morning workouts successful the summer. … One-hundred degrees is 100 degrees. It’s not comfy astatine all. But it makes you successful signifier and mentally tough.”
Alejado besides has learned to accommodate arsenic helium ascended the shot ladder. At 5 feet 10, Alejado relies connected a speedy merchandise to flight a defence of 11 aggravated men. His quality to propulsion to receivers arsenic they interruption connected their routes comes from post-practice sessions and tireless video studies.
“If you truly privation to beryllium a mastermind and recognize the crippled to the fullest, you person to instrumentality the due steps to hole and instrumentality a heavy dive into the publication of football,” Alejado said. “That’s the mode I’ve been since I was young. I was successful emotion with the crippled and the P’s and Q’s and insides and outsides of it.”
Alejado often volition ticker a play from an NFL telecast, past occurrence disconnected a substance to caput coach Timmy Chang, who calls the violative plays.
“Can we get a saltation of what they’re doing into our offense?” Alejado would text.
Last season, Alejado showed grit aft being injured successful the season-opening triumph over Stanford. He was believed to person suffered a high-ankle sprain. He declined to acquisition precocious testing.
“I didn’t privation to cognize what was wrong,” helium said. “I wasn’t going to look astatine thing until the extremity of the play oregon if I couldn’t locomotion anymore.”
He played the pursuing week, aggravating the wounded successful the 2nd half. He missed the adjacent 2 games and, aft a bye week, returned against Fresno State and started the remainder of the season.
He did not enactment successful question drills up of the Hawaii Bowl.
“I was conscionable trying to get the ankle acceptable for 1 past game,” helium said. “It was beauteous surreal however I made it done the season.”
After the triumph over California in the Hawaii Bowl, during which helium completed 69.6% of his throws for 274 yards and 3 touchdowns, it was revealed helium had endured fractures to his tibia and fibula successful his close ankle. The wounded did not necessitate surgery.
“I don’t deliberation if it were my near (ankle), I would person played, decidedly not,”said Alejado, referencing his push-off foot.
Alejado did not enactment successful interaction drills the past outpouring training. He was cleared for sprinting successful June.
“I deliberation those five, six months helped maine a lot,” Alejado said. “It’s been a agelong roadworthy to recovery, 1 that truly tested me. Looking astatine it now, I’m 100%.”
In this epoch of casual transfers and lucrative name-image-likeness deals, Alejado opted to enactment put.
“Coach Chang has been my No. 1 protagonist ever since helium gave maine a scholarship,” Alejado said. “That means a batch to person a manager who believes successful you and trusts you. You’ll find a batch of guys contiguous successful assemblage shot struggling to find that. People underestimate however grateful I americium for having this caput manager and civilization astir me, having my brothers astir me. We attraction astir football. I emotion the civilization here. I emotion the people. I privation to triumph immoderate shot games here.”
Alejado regularly treats the discourtesy to lunch. Ahead of grooming camp, helium plans to prime up the tab for a squad dinner. This coming Sunday, helium is the sanction sponsor to a younker campy (ages 6-16) at Saint Louis School.
He said helium grew up attending shot camps and clinics. It was wherever helium met and played drawback with Tua Tagovailoa and Marcus Mariota.
“It was amusive to conscionable them and speech football,” Alejado said. “It was large to spot however they were arsenic people. I privation to bash the same.”
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