 |
Editor's note: Each day a University of Hawai'i men's volleyball player will chronicle his day for The Honolulu Advertiser as UH embarks on a quest for its first NCAA title.
By Costas Theocharidis
University of Hawai'i outside hitter
I knew it was going to be a good day. I got up at, like, 11, and Michelle Landis, our trainer, brought me and my roommate Eyal Zimet breakfast. I guess she knew we were going to miss the free breakfast buffet.
I was tired, but I was trying to think about our chances of getting into the NCAA final four. Then Tony Ching came in, and he was all excited. He wanted to go to Magic Mountain. He was, like, "Guys, wake up! Wake up! Wake up! We're going to ride the roller-coasters!"
Advertiser library photo • Jan. 17, 2002
He can get excited. We were, like, "Get out of here. We're trying to sleep." But how can you sleep after that? So we had breakfast, checked our e-mails on JoJo Chala's laptop computer, watched the NBA playoffs and tried to do a little bit of studying.
Hawai'i's Costas Theocharidis dumped one on Penn State's Jose Quiones in the Outrigger Invitational. UH, which swept that match, plays Penn State in an NCAA semifinal Thursday.
It's hard to study on the road. My GPA is 3.7, or something, but on the road, I'm never in the mood to study. You have so much other stuff to do. There are practices and meetings. And we like to watch cable TV and sleep. The only time to study is at night or on the plane. I have 11 classes left before I graduate and I'm looking forward to graduating.
Even while I was studying, I kept thinking about our final four chances. Deep inside, I knew we were going to go. But there's that little teeny-tiny percentage where you never know what's going to happen.
Carl McGown, the BYU coach, was pretty sure he was going to get the at-large berth. OK, maybe I had some doubts.
When Michelle told me we were going to the final four, I was really excited. I went into the room and yelled, "Zimet, we're in!" He was like, "So, what. Didn't you know that?" He was acting calm, but when he left the room, he was so excited. He started running around. Then he came back in the room, and I told him, "Hey, man, this is our chance of a lifetime. We have to grab this chance by the hair and do our best. We have a chance to win a national title."
We played so hard throughout the year. We're one of the most consistent teams. We're second-ranked throughout the polls. Finally, we're getting some respect.
We're not done with our goals. Like I told the guys, we're going for the big fish. We have to relax a little bit and get ready for the semis on Thursday.
If we win the national title, we'll reach all of our goals.
OK, maybe the next goal after that is to pass our finals.
