Los Angeles Rams’ ‘Mauicamp’ treats kids to NFL experience; Bissen hopes to make it an annual affair

WAILUKU — When flag football player Tehana Rodriguez challenged two NFL stars to one-on-one matchups at War Memorial Stadium, she ended up with wide receiver Puka Nacua’s necklace, running back Kyren Williams’ jersey and a memory that will last a lifetime.

Rodriguez, a soon-to-be eighth grader, was among the 400 flag and tackle football players from Maui Interscholastic League schools who were participating in a 90-minute clinic held by the Los Angeles Rams. The NFL team has been on the island this week for a mandatory four-day minicamp dubbed the Rams Mauicamp.

With Williams playing defense, Rodriguez of Lahaina Intermediate School caught a pass in the end zone. As she celebrated with Williams and her flag football teammates, Rodriguez rubbed it in by letting Williams know she is a diehard fan of the division rival San Francisco 49ers.

“That was light work, Niners nation, I just knew I was going to smoke him,” Rodriguez said as she moved on to the next station of the clinic. “I told my quarterback ‘hit me.’ … He threw a dot and I caught it.”

As Rodriguez slipped on the No. 5 practice jersey Williams presented her, she said, “Amazing, whoa, I ain’t going to wash this. Never.”

To get Nacua’s necklace, Rodriguez ran a route against him with Nacua playing defense.

“I told him ‘meet me on the field right now, right here.’ He lined up, I lined up. Shook on it, I took his necklace.”

The Rams Mauicamp workouts ran Monday through Thursday. While the Monday and Thursday sessions were closed, the participants of the football clinic could watch the Tuesday session. And the Wednesday session was open to the public, with all 6,000 free tickets gobbled up.

During the high school clinic on Tuesday, the Rams players conducted station-to-station drills that included agility, passing, relay races and defensive simulations.

Also on Tuesday, the Rams 2025 rookie class traveled to Lahaina to join Habitat for Humanity Maui to help rebuild four homes affected by the 2023 wildfire.

And Rams Super Bowl LVI Champion Andrew Whitworth joined current Rams to surprise players from Lahainaluna High School with news that they would be receiving professional-grade locker rooms on campus for boys and girls student-athletes. It is a collaborative effort of the Rams, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, Hollman Lockers and design firm Forty Nine Degrees.

After the Wednesday workout, a mass autograph session was held with the Rams lining up around the fence to mingle with fans. This was followed by 1,200 Maui Summer PALS kids participating in the NFL Play 60 Field Day, an event focused on getting children active and promoting healthy lifestyles. It was part of the NFL’s Play 60 initiative, which encourages youth to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen was at the clinic on Tuesday and said the hope is to make the Rams Mauicamp an annual happening. Although, it likely will have to wait a year because renovation work, which is slated to start next week at War Memorial Stadium, is not scheduled to be completed until August of 2026.

To make this year’s Mauicamp happen, Bissen led a group of Maui and Hawai‘i government officials on a visit in September to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. He credited the support of Mufi Hannemann, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green and state legislators.

“So the relationship and the opportunity for this to extend as an annual event, is what we’re all hoping,” Bissen said. “We’ll see how this one goes. This is the first professional football team to do a minicamp on Maui.”

For the kids, Bissen said: “The day’s perfect. The field is great. The kids are excited. It’s just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we want to recreate and make it an annual event.”

Bissen said events like this will help the Maui economy.

“That goes without saying, all the hotel rooms, some of (the fans) will come early, will stay later beyond the camp,” Bissen said. “And just frequenting the restaurants, the lūʻau shows, the shops. As I said to them last night (at a team reception), ‘When you leave here, don’t just leave with memories, leave with souvenirs and gifts. Take them back to your family and friends that weren’t able to make the trip.’ So, yeah, that’s what it was all about.”

Bissen added that when the stadium renovation is complete in a year, the University of Hawaiʻi football team is likely to play a game here. Bissen said that discussions were held with UH last fall, but the needed renovations delayed the Rainbow Warriors playing a game here until the seating capacity is expanded.

“It’s going to be able to handle a size that can accommodate a college football game,” Bissen said. “The requirement is 12,000 or more. And so we are going to have that. … That’s the hope, is that we can have UH games. We were in touch with UH last year, but it was too quick to try to turn it around.”

The Hula Bowl college all-star game was held at War Memorial from 1998 to 2005, leading to the expansion of the stadium from 6,000 capacity to about 15,000 with the addition of the aluminmum bleachers that are part of the renovations.

“Obviously, we ran the Hula Bowl here for a number of years,” Bissen said. “So we know we can handle college games and, of course, minicamps if the players enjoy this experience. And if last night at their reception was any indication, they do. I think we’re on the right track.”

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said he would like to see a return of the Mauicamp, although the decision is “above my pay grade.” But he said: “I’ve had a blast. … I know our team has enjoyed the experience, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

Stafford signed the croc of Kaylyn Banaag, a rising junior at Maui High School who caught Stafford’s eye in Tuesday’s flag football clinic.

“That was pretty cool for me because I didn’t think he would remember me from yesterday,” Banaag said. “It was just really good talking to him. It was really nice to know that he remembered me.”

Banaag said the event will help the island’s football players, boys and girls. She is a Rams’ fan now.

“It’s nice that the game is continuing to grow, especially because as a kid I was the only girl playing flag and tackle,” Banaag said. “It’s a rare thing and it’s going to grow the love for the game, of course, and get more girls to join.”

Stafford said the Rams go out of their way to spread the love of the game everywhere and the Mauicamp was a prime example.

“Obviously, this is far away from home for us,” Stafford said. “But it’s a unique opportunity to show the kids and the people of this area what we do, and be able to interact with them, and hopefully inspire some young Puka Nacuas.”

Nacua has family ties to Hawaiʻi island and was a big crowd favorite at both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions. Once off the plane, he didn’t take long to hunt down a Spam musubi.

“It feels like home,” Nacua said. “As soon as we got off the plane, the first person gave me a big hug and a big smile and he was like, ‘Oh, thank you so much for everything you do for the Polynesian community.’ That’s how I expected it to be, to have a warm welcome.”

Nacua also is in favor of this event becoming an annual happening: “Hopefully, we have minicamps here every year. It’ll be a good vacation for us all.”

‘Iolani Kaniho, co-head coach for the Lahainaluna flag football team, said his 10 girls at the camp, including Rodriguez, enjoyed the experience and were excited to see up close how NFL athletes play.

“They can see it on TV, but when you see it live it’s a different thing,” Kaniho said. “So the girls are excited. They wanted to come out here and learn from professionals. It’s pretty cool.”

It was certainly a special time for Williams, who was seemingly smiling the entire time he was working with the Maui County high schoolers.

“This is what it’s all about, this is what I feel the Lord has put me on this platform to do, is to be able to give back, to inspire, to bless and to impact,” Williams said. “So, that’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what I try to do every day.”

He was happy to hand his jersey to Rodriguez.

“She called me out. She said, ‘Let’s do a one-on-one’ — you can tell the competitive spirit in her,” Williams said. “She already had Puka’s necklace on. So, she took Puka’s necklace and she took my jersey. She’s got a real competitive mindset and she’s really good at football.”

When told Rodriguez is going into eighth grade in the fall, Williams shook his head. 

“It’s stuff like that that makes it so special,” Williams said. “Eighth grade, she plays a lot better than that.”