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How a presidential debate forced the Bobcats on a month long road swing into Hawaii

The start of the 2024 season has been a unique experience for the Bobcats as Texas State has been playing on the road for over a month, including a week-long trip to Hawaii to play both the Rainbow Wahine and in the Hawaii Tournament.

Playing in Hawaii during the month-long road trip has been a good experience for both the Bobcats and Head Coach Sean Huiet.

“It’s been a really fun trip,” Huiet said. “Saturday was a travel day for us, so we could get accumulated to the time difference. We got here and checked in, then we did team Luau that night. Then on Sunday we hiked out on the north shore, … got shaved ice and then had a lot of team bonding.

“It was nice when we got back in the gym and had a two-hour practice. The trip wasn’t just for bonding, it was to play some really good matches out here. But it’s been a good experience.”

While the massive road swing has been a unique experience, it wasn’t without reason.

In November of last year, Texas State announced the university was going to host the 2024 presidential debate that was scheduled to take place Sept. 16 but never came to fruition. It would have been held in Strahan Arena.

With Strahan set to be occupied for an entire week, the Bobcats were temporarily left not only with no place to play home games but also no place to practice.

“We were hoping to host one tournament,” Huiet said. “But the timing of when [the tournament would have been did not work, along with when] the FBI [was] coming in and taking over Strahan. I talked to Don [Coryell] and Tracy [Shoemake] about where we were going to practice because we didn’t know some of the logistics at that time. At that time, the big thing was that classes were going to go online because it was going to be so crazy in San Marcos with everything.”

Using his resources, Huiet came up with a unique plan to combat the Bobcats’ unfortunate situation. A week long trip to Hawaii to play in a series of games.

“[I told them] I have friends who coach in Hawaii who would let us train and use their facilities,” Huiet said. “[That way] we didn’t have to deal with the gym stuff and the space. It was a no-brainer to get out of town for that. Then it turned into ‘Well if you are coming out here for this long, we play you in another match.’” When the presidential debate that was set to take place in San Marcos was canceled in June, Huiet chose to focus on how the road swing will ultimately help the Bobcats.

“We talked a lot with the team about this road trip during the entirety of [non-conference],” Huiet said. “It is only going to help us grow up and make us figure things out. It’s teaching them about time management because we are missing a lot of classes. So we are doing study hall on the road. They are taking care of business, so it’s going to be a really good experience for us.”

While the Bobcats have been taking advantage of the beauty that is Hawaii, Huiet also acknowledges the struggles of playing on the road for so long.

“As fun as it is traveling to Hawaii and being with your teammates, it does start to have wear and tear on your body,” Huiet said. “It’s different when you are not in Strahan. We love being in Strahan and playing in front of our fans, but the conference tournament and NCAA tournament are on the road.

“We have to learn about playing in different environments and on neutral sites. That experience is really going to help this team.”

One of the challenges the team faced during their Hawaii trip was the time change.

In their Tuesday night game against the Rainbow Wahine, tip-off in the Hawaii standard time was at 7 p.m. But in San Marcos, fans and parents would have to stay up until midnight to watch the Bobcats.

Because of the unique situation, Hueit and his staff prepared a series of events to allow the team to adjust in the time zone.

“That is why we tried to get in as early as we could, especially knowing we were playing Tuesday night,” Huiet said. “That first day is always the hardest, which is why we landed at noon here, where back home is five, got checked into the hotel then did something right away. We planned the luau to just trick your body that you are not tired when it is midnight back home but 7 p.m. here. Then we got up early the next morning just to get used to [the time change].”

Texas State went 1-2 during their stay in Hawaii losing twice to the Rainbow Wahine but beating the Oregon State Beavers.

The Bobcats round out their month-long road swing in Louisiana as Texas State opens conference play against the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Friday.

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc