Willoughby will get shot at playing basketball

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kim Willoughby can't get enough.

Kim Willoughby was a two-time all--state high school basketball player in Louisiana. Advertiser library photo • 2000

Basketball coach Vince Goo talked it over with Willoughby last week, and they agreed to meet later and go over specifics if she was sincerely interested. "I told her I'd give her the opportunity to fulfill that dream she has," Goo said.

Volleyball coach Dave Shoji is intrigued by the idea far beyond the fact that it would free up a scholarship for his team.

"I'd like to see her play," Shoji says. "She's talked about it a long time, she keeps talking about it. She averaged some gaudy numbers in high school. Maybe she can help their program.

"It's a little scary, but in a way it's good. She has to stay focused academically. They run a real tight ship over there and she'll have to be disciplined. That's good if she can withstand the physical part of it. For overall conditioning and being in a structured program, it would be really good for her."

Neither coach has seen Willoughby play, but she scored 2,000 points and was a two-time state player of the year for Assumption High in Louisiana.

"I'm very serious, I want to play basketball," Willoughby said. "I have a lot of video tapes (of high school games) and sometimes I sit at home and watch those games. I think that's the worst ... I keep watching them and can't believe I gave it up.

"I already told my family and friends I don't know if I'll be home for Christmas because of basketball."

While UH assistant basketball coach Jon Newlee was still at Southern Methodist, he saw Willoughby play in the "Shake and Bake by the Lake" tournament, near Lake Pontchartrain in Southeast Louisiana. He recalls a devastating rebounder, with a good shot within 12 feet, on a very well-coached team.

Willoughby, a 6-foot forward, said she did not attempt to play last year because she didn't know the players and didn't want to interfere with established team dynamics. But when she played pick-up games last spring, even 6-foot-5 Christen Roper couldn't stop her inside.

The coaches and Willoughby know much could change between now and the end of Hawai'i's volleyball season. Goo plans to "wait and see if it really happens — get ready to tee it up and if it rains, it rains, if it's sunny, you play."

He is also acutely aware that, while Willoughby is an exceptional athlete, she would be coming into a relatively complicated, structured system, late. The transition will be tough.

"It's going to depend on how fast and how soon she can catch up to us," Goo says. "If we were playing in a park league, freelance, she could come right in. We don't play a lot of freelance."