Like rain on moving day or bird droppings on a person’s head, good omens can take bad forms.

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It is why there was little concern when Sean Olvera-Harle missed two makeable field-goal attempts in the final scrimmage ahead of the Hawaii football team’s season opener last month. A year earlier, predecessor Kansei Matsuzawa also misfired in the preseason before connecting on his first 25 field-goal tries of the 2025 season.

“We don’t talk about that,” special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield said of comparisons. “We focus on Sean and his process, and let him create and write his own story.”

Olvera-Harle has had a once-upon-a-time start to his first season as the Rainbow Warriors’ point-scoring kicker. In the first three games, he is 5-for-6 on field-goal attempts. The small sample size still places his 83.3% conversation rate as tied for the seventh-most accurate by a UH kicker in the past 50 seasons.

Only Rigoberto Sanchez (13-for-13) in 2016, Kenton “Magic” Chun (4-for-4) in 2011 and Jason Elam in 1990 (5-for-5) have had perfect seasons with a minimum of two attempts. Sanchez doubled as the Warriors’ punter. Chun, who had a walk-off kick against Idaho, shared duties with Tyler Hadden. Elam’s 1990 season was abbreviated because of a groin injury.

As Matsuzawa’s understudy last season, Olvera-Harle was used on 32 kickoffs while amassing 11 touchbacks.

With Matsuzawa’s departure, Olvera-Harle spent the offseason mastering his craft with focused workouts, up to three stretching periods a day, ice treatments and cryotherapy. Returning long-snapper Jack Mowrey helped Olvera-Harle foster a bond with Texas transfer Gehrig Heil, a punter who volunteered to moonlight as a holder.

“Practiced (holding) at Texas but never did it in a game,” Heil said. “I’ve put in a lot of work since I got here. It’s just reps. Make sure you get 50 to 100 a day.”

Mowrey said: “The more reps you get, the more confidence you get, the calmer you get in games. It’s just a trust thing with me, Sean and Gehrig.”

Olvera-Harle said his powerful right leg was developed from playing soccer from youth leagues through high school.

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“Whenever I got bored, I’d grab a soccer ball and kick it as far as I could,” Olvera-Harle said.

After joining St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church School’s football team, he expanded his workouts to kicking footballs toward the baseball backstops at local parks in Orange County.

Now during UH breaks, he said, “I’ll grab a tee and a couple balls back home and find a pole and kick at it.”

During the past offseason, Olvera-Harle was hitting field goals from up to 65 yards. With advice from Sheffield, Matsuzawa and Billy Gowers, last season’s punter, Olvera-Harle took a single-minded approach to his kicks.

“Don’t let other distractions get to you,” said Olvera-Harle, recalling Matsuzawa’s mantra. “Just focus on the kick and only the kick.”

Olvera-Harle, similar to recent UH kickers, meets with a sports psychologist to work on relaxation techniques.

“I do journaling,” he said. “I do some meditation, breathing techniques.”

He also spends off-the-field time with Mowrey and Heil.

“Last weekend we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and got to watch some football,” Heil said of the bye weekend.. “The best thing about the bye week is you get to watch more football. That was exciting.”

Olvera-Harle also is preparing for Saturday’s road game against Wyoming. The thin air of Laramie’s 7,200-foot elevation creates less aerodynamic drag on a football. Translation: the football flies at War Memorial Stadium.

“All it does is change the distance,” Olvera-Harle said. “It’s not going to change my form or how I actually kick. Everything is going to stay the same. The biggest challenge is to trust my technique. Don’t over-kick. Don’t over-swing. That’s when mistakes start to happen.”

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