{"id":28176,"date":"2020-01-17T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T18:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=28176"},"modified":"2020-01-17T12:39:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T17:39:44","slug":"rex-sunahara-morgantowns-unsung-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/01\/17\/rex-sunahara-morgantowns-unsung-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Rex Sunahara: Morgantown\u2019s Unsung Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rex Sunahara: Morgantown\u2019s Unsung Hero<\/h2>\n

After spending a year at Rhode Island, Rex Sunahara<\/strong><\/a> decided to join his father, Reed, in Morgantown. The older Sunahara had already established himself as West Virginia\u2019s volleyball coach. But when Rex decided to transfer to play football with the Mountaineers, it took Reed by surprise. In a 2018 interview with WV MetroNews, Reed told Alex Hickey that Rex told his family of his intent to transfer while on vacation at Reed\u2019s native Hawaii. And, like that, with no guarantee that he would even make the team, Rex decided to try his fortunes for the Mountaineers. And after four years, Rex established himself as Morgantown\u2019s unsung hero.<\/p>\n

The Career of Morgantown\u2019s Unsung Hero<\/h3>\n

Sunahara arrived in Morgantown before the 2016 season. After trying out as a long-snapper, the coaching staff allowed him to compete as a walk-on. For the next two seasons, he served as Nick Meadows\u2019 understudy, learning all he could about the position.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2018, Sunahara got his chance to shine. Since then, he has been a steady hand for the Mountaineers. On his arrival in Morgantown<\/a>, in fact, Head Coach Neal Brown<\/strong><\/a> called Sunahara one of the most complete players on the team. Sure, others were named to various pre-season award watch lists. Still others racked up spots on various All-American and All-Conference lists. But Rex had Brown\u2019s attention from the moment he walked in. And this season, he has proved Brown\u2019s faith to be warranted, rising as Morgantown\u2019s unsung hero.<\/p>\n

Sunahara showed an unparalleled work ethic in developing his craft. A high school wide receiver, in fact, Sunahara did not start long snapping until going to Rhode Island. But he quickly gained a knack for it, and he mastered the art quickly. Sure, he had a good mentor, but the work was all his own. To be sure, the Mountaineers will miss his steady hand next season.<\/p>\n

\"morgantown's<\/p>\n

NFLPA Collegiate Bowl<\/h3>\n

Sunahara\u2019s work over the past two seasons earned him an invitation to the NFLPA\u2019s Collegiate Bowl. The week’s events are taking place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. The all-star game set-up features 112 players from across the country on two rosters, the National team, and the American team. Former NFL coaches Hue Jackson and Marvin Lewis are heading up the coaching staffs. The assistants are a veritable who’s who of former NFL standouts. Carnell Lake, Ricky Manning, Jr. Kevin Mawae, Rod Woodson, and Dennis Thurman are among the names working out with the college players all week. The game itself is Saturday night on the NFL Network. Last Word on College Football<\/strong> is at the Collegiate Bowl all week, talking to players, coaches and NFL scouts. We had the chance to interview Sunahara earlier this week. His humility and love for the game of football was apparent.<\/p>\n

Asked about Brown\u2019s glowing comments on his consistency and play, Sunahara told us that is \u201cis a great honor coming from someone I respect.\u201d He added that the compliment from someone with whom he has a great relationship \u201cmeant the world\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

As to Brown\u2019s comment that Sunahara was one of the most \u201ccomplete\u201d players on the team, he noted, \u201cpeople just think we snap the ball and we are just bodies and are not going to do anything.\u201d Indeed, he added that he\u2019s not just<\/em> a long snapper. In fact, he \u201cloves contact\u201d and wants to be in on tackles. Sunahara understands and embraces that, if he has the opportunity to play at the next level, teams will ask him to expand his role.<\/p>\n

Sunahara\u2019s goal this week is to learn as much as he can. He also wants to perform in front of scouts and \u201cput some good stuff on tape.\u201d Most importantly, however, Sunahara \u201cwants to help the team.\u201d More than anything, in a game built almost solely for scouts, Rex still boils the game down to this simple concept: \u201c[W]e play to win games.\u201d\u00a0 More than just a long-snapper indeed.<\/p>\n

Finally, asked about the coaching transition, Sunahara admitted that there were \u201cbumps in the road.\u201d But he said that once the team made the adjustments asked of them, there was full buy-in and the team started \u201ckicking it up.\u201d Sunahara believes the Mountaineers are in \u201cgood hands\u201d with Coach Brown. It\u2019s safe to say he\u2019s bought in, and it\u2019s also safe to say he\u2019ll continue to make an impact in Morgantown and beyond.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rex Sunahara: Morgantown\u2019s Unsung Hero After spending a year at Rhode Island, Rex Sunahara decided to join his father, Reed, in Morgantown. The older Sunahara had already established himself as West Virginia\u2019s volleyball coach. But when Rex decided to transfer to play football with the Mountaineers, it took Reed by surprise. In a 2018 interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2744,"featured_media":28179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[6164,1712,6166,6165,3366,3650],"class_list":["post-28176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","tag-mountaineers-football","tag-neal-brown","tag-nflpa-collegiate-bowl","tag-rex-sunahara","tag-west-virginia","tag-west-virginia-football"],"modified_by":"Jason Rhea","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}