Road can be fun for Warriors volleyball team

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

The road can be heck, right?

Costas Theocharidis likes being on the road: "You have food, you're watching movies, you're hanging out. What's not to like?" Advertiser library photo

Well ...

"Actually," Hawai'i volleyball player Dejan Miladinovic whispered, "we love going on the road."

"I think the team plays better on the road because we have a lot more fun," added middle blocker Geronimo "Jo Jo" Chala, noting the Warriors are 6-0 in road matches this season.

Before this year, setter Daniel Rasay, a redshirt freshman from the Big Island, had traveled to the Mainland twice. This month, the Warriors make three trips to California to play eight matches, including this week's matches at UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge. The Warriors leave today.

The players do not even mind the five-hour flights.

"You have food, you're watching movies, you're hanging out," outside hitter Costas Theocharidis said. "What's not to like? It's a chance to sleep for five hours."

For all but two road matches, the Warriors will stay at the Embassy Suites near the Los Angeles International Airport. Each unit includes a living room, two television sets and a kitchenette. There is a free breakfast buffet.

"It's way better than the dorm rooms," Rasay said. "It's bigger, you have cable TV and you don't have to share the bathroom with a lot of people."

Said Theocharidis: "The dorm rooms are like stables. Wherever we stay (on the road) is nicer than the dorms."

Because the Warriors receive a discounted group rate, each player nets about $25 per day for food and personal expenses. Unlike some other UH coaches, Mike Wilton gives the players their entire share at the start of each trip.

"There are two reasons I do it that way," Wilton said. "No. 1, it's an incredible pain in the butt to dole it out piecemeal. No. 2, it teaches them responsibility and some thriftiness. We tell the players, 'We're here so many days; here's the money, do the math.'"

When he coached at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Wilton recalled, "I had a freshman who blew her entire allotment at a sale. Then it became a problem because she had to borrow money for food."

Instead of fast-food restaurants, Wilton said, the players prefer to shop at grocery stores. "They're very smart about what they eat," Wilton said. "They don't eat grease all day long."

"We'll buy a lot of fruit, bread and cheese," Miladinovic said. "That will last for a while."

Although Wilton distributes a detailed itinerary — one entry lists driving directions, another assigns shower times — he gives the players the freedom to go to the mall or beach.

Most of the time, the players will watch television or amuse themselves by imitating assistant coach Tino Reyes or Theocharidis.

"When you try to speak like Tino, it's all in the lisp," Rasay said. "You need to start off with a good lish-puh."

Last week, Chala impersonated the Greece-raised Theocharidis during a telephone interview with a Honolulu reporter. On how Theocharidis managed a school-record nine aces, the basso voice said, "I had a nose job today, and now I can see the entire court."

"Jo Jo is a man of many talents," Wilton said, laughing.

"If you don't study Costas and imitate him, you can never have a conversation with him," Chala said. "His accent is so hard to understand. Our first year here, he asked us if we wanted to go to the movies, and we thought he was saying, 'Can you lend me a pencil,' or something. We can't understand what he's saying. You have to have the same voice. You have to pretend you're in Greece."

Said Theocharidis: "I don't know what they're talking about."

"It's joke after joke on the road," Miladinovic said. "We have some gifted players. Maybe they can get into acting."