Veteran coach perfect fit at Wahine basketball

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

There was a point in Vince Goo's life when a few more years of teaching and coaching Kaiser High School's golf team were all that stood between him and retirement.

Vince Goo (at left in 1987, at right in 2002) is two wins away from achieving a coaching milestone — winning 300 games. Martha Hernandez • The Honolulu Advertiser

But 15 years later, Goo is two wins away from 300, and his team plays Nevada tonight and Fresno State Saturday. He has re-defined success for a program that had never been ranked nor gone to the NCAA Tournament before he took over, and now realizes that's only part of what it had been looking for all along.

Goo says he measures success against perfection, and in one area — the most crucial for a collegiate athlete — his program is perfect: All 35 Wahine who have completed their eligibility at UH have received degrees.

"I'm most proud of that because it's pretty hard to be perfect," Goo says. "You're going to miss a free throw or a shot, you're not going to win every game. But if you can be perfect in one category you should try and do that and we've accomplished it so far."

More than half those graduates are still involved in basketball and a dozen have played professionally. Tania Brunton-Tupu became the program's first Olympian in Sydney.

	Vince Goo file
•	Born: Jan. 15, 1947 in Honolulu
•	Education: Kalani High School, '65, Southern Oregon State, '69, teaching certificate from UH
•	Family: Wife Gay, children Cappy, Kippy, Kasey, Kimmy
•	Career/UH Record: 298-128 (15th season)
•	Goo's Dream Teams, by position: Offense: Melanie Azama, Kaui Wakita, Raylene Howard, Judy Mosley, Kendis Leeburg Defense: BJ Itoman, Nani Cockett, Tania Brunton, Hedy Liu, Christen Roper
•	Highlights: 100 percent graduation rate Averages more than 20 wins a season Five seasons with 25 or more victories Five NCAA Tournament bids Three WNIT bids Four conference Coach of the Year awards Three All-Americans One Olympian Three conference Players of the Year 21 all-conference players

With one exception — the injury-mangled 6-20 season of 1994-95 — Goo is close. The year after, with Brunton and All-American Nani Cockett back from knee injuries, Hawai'i accomplished the greatest turnaround in women's college basketball history, going 23-6 and reaching the NCAA Tournament.

What Cockett remembers most about that season is Goo's talk with her before it ever started.

"When I was hurt the second time, he actually gave me the option of playing," recalled Cockett, who teaches special education at Ala Wai Elementary. "He asked me if I wanted to go through it because he knew how hard it was to come back and how much it hurt."

Ask a current or former Wahine how her recruiting spiel for Goo would go and you hear a slightly different version of the same story. It starts with emphasis on academics and community outreach, followed by an assurance that there will always be someone here for you if you follow the program's rigid rules. There is the promise that practice will be as intense as games.

Finally, the Wahine will tell recruits point-blank that they will always be held accountable.

"Most recruits ask about basketball first, but coach always makes a point of telling us how proud he is of the 100 percent graduation rate, which he should be," Wahine senior Karena Greeny says. "Not many programs have that. When recruits come here, we all tell them they can't screw around."

There is little time for that in Goo's precise program. His practices, which often start at 6 a.m., are managed to the minute. His staff's scouting involves hours of editing film and tracking tendencies. Study halls and grade checks are as relentless as game preparation.

"His tactics are just brilliant," says Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji, who has won four national titles. "He attacks teams where he sees weaknesses. He just doesn't run one or two offenses and hope he can get people free. It seems like he has something for every defense."

And for every season. Goo designs his tactics around his talent, not the other way around. In his 15 years, the Wahine offense has revolved around wing players and posts, run a breathless platoon system and hardly run at all. The constants have been defense, which always instigates offense, and players who think as hard as they work.

•	Victory No. 100 80-78 over Santa Clara Dec. 13, 1992 Stop if you've heard this before: Hawai'i made 26 of 39 free throws to Santa Clara's 12-of-15 and held off a barrage of late 3-pointers to earn Goo's 100th in the final of the Wahine Invitational. Val Agee scored a career-high 19 points and added six assists as the Wahine hit 64 percent of their shots, with Alison Golnick, Jennifer Hurt and Kaui Wakita going a combined 18-for-21. Goo's reaction to the historic victory: "Shoot, I only worry about catching Dave Shoji. Of course, I'll have to be 92 or 93 to catch him."
•	Victory No. 200 57-54 over Rice, March 5, 1997 WAC Tournament Freshman Raylene Howard, exhibiting the gifts that would take her to two WAC Player of the Year honors, put the Wahine ahead with a 3-pointer in the final minute and snagged a career-high 15 rebounds. Teammate Kendis Leeburg scored a game-high 21 points. Hawai'i's starters all played at least 37 minutes in a game so frenetic an opposing coach scouting was worn out. "It was an incredibly intense game," San Diego State's Beth Burns said. "With 10 minutes left I started feeling sick and didn't care who won."

Goo absorbed everything his father taught him and all he heard growing up playing point guard. He has adapted it to every group he has coached, from Castle's and Kaiser's to 15 unique UH teams.

"His program allows a player to find her internal motivation, it allows you to grow," says Val Agee, who played on the team that won Goo's 100th game. "Some coaches' philosophies stunt a player's growth, but I don't think Vince's program is one that did that. It was wonderful for me."

Goo is so meticulous that when he went to Southern Oregon State, he sent his wife-to-be a letter every day for four years.

"There was no mail delivery Sunday," recalls Gay, a special education teacher at Farrington, "so I'd get two letters Monday."

They started seeing each other in ninth grade and will celebrate their 32nd anniversary next month. Gay could sense early in Goo's Wahine coaching career that the job was growing on him, along with the Wahine.

"He always jokes that they smell better than the guys," Gay says. "But really, I think the women have less ego than the men. In that way, they're more coachable. He just had success there and stayed."

Gay likes the situation because she always knows where her husband is, and because he likes it.

"That makes us happy," she says, including their four grown children. "He's a really intense person in all he does. His passion for coaching is so very intense, very serious. But on the other side, he can be really funny. ... He can't be serious at home. We won't allow that."

Goo's sense of humor takes time to comprehend. Most players admit he intimidates them early.

Tiffany Fujimoto is one. She played on the 1997 team that won No. 200 and says it took her nearly two seasons to feel comfortable enough to laugh at his jokes. Now, she remembers Goo as "my coach, my mentor and like an uncle — someone I could trust."