Little glory, lot of satisfaction in being walk-on for Rainbow Wahine

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

In reality, a player without a scholarship is called a "walk-on" because it is so easy for them to walk off.

Megan O'Brian, left, and Ashley Watanabe, bottom, practice as hard as their teammates, play very little, but are happy to be part of the team. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

That redshirt year gave them four more years to "play" but the term is used loosely as second-ranked Hawai'i moves into the posteason. Because of injuries to others, Watanabe has made every road trip and gone in for short spurts in some 20 games this season, with two aces and 16 digs. O'Brian's time has been measured in moments of six games.

She has an assist and a dig and is without regret as the Rainbow Wahine (25-1) attempt to win their fifth consecutive Western Athletic Conference title this weekend. They play in the WAC Tournament's first-round tomorrow against eighth-seeded Louisiana Tech (19-15).

"I look at the other side sometimes and think I could probably play for them," O'Brian admits. "But it's not a regret at all. It's just that my team is beating them badly and I'd most definitely rather be on this team."

O'Brian and Watanabe don't dream of drilling the national championship point or coming up with the dig that keeps Hawai'i's hopes alive. Mostly, they just work their okoles off, in an atmosphere that is far beyond what their expectations were coming out of high school.

They are at every practice, weight-room workout and team meeting. They do everything their teammates do except collect scholarship checks and, for the most part, play and travel.

Their practices consist of just as many repetitions if not more. Often they stand on boxes and hit down at their teammates, or offer themselves up as blocking targets. Sometimes, they serve for half an hour so others can work solely on serve-receive.

"It's almost like being on the scout team in football," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "They get beat up. That's their role."

Watanabe, an all-conference volleyball and basketball player for 'Aie'a, and O'Brian, a volleyball/track athlete from California, became best friends last year not by commiserating, but by celebrating their stature. They came to Manoa from diverse coasts and found common ground in the blood, sweat and fears of being walk-on freshmen.

"My first double-day ... wow, it was pretty intense," O'Brian recalls. "I was always intimidated. But they were all so encouraging and wanted to help. Hedder (Ilustre) has been my savior. She is so wonderful. If something is wrong, I turn to her."

Watanabe grew up with the Rainbow Wahine. Associate coach Charlie Wade encouraged her to walk on after she attended Shoji's camps. She dismissed it as an impossible mission and looked into Division II schools in California.

She decided to stay home, with a family that performs as a singing group and a volleyball team she had always figured was a "look but don't touch" part of growing up in Hawai'i. She was surprised to discover she could play a part.

"I was a fan of these players," Watanabe recalls. "I watched their every move. Playing with them ... they're regular people. They seemed untouchable. They were UH Rainbows and I thought watching was as close as I could get. Now they're my teammates."

O'Brian came here to make a splash in class. She planned to major in oceanography and Hawai'i seemed more intriguing than any of the California schools she considered. She wrote to a professor requesting a class schedule. Her mother sent a video to the volleyball office to see if walking on was a possibility.

It was. Now O'Brian, like Watanabe, is hooked, though Shoji has encouraged her to go somewhere else where she could play.

O'Brian figures her game is now twice as good as when she got here. But what she values most are the friends she's made and how hard the team has taught her to work. Playing is not her focus. Helping Hawai'i play well is what she's all about.

"Being happy is the most important thing," O'Brian says. "If you're at a level and that's not up to someone else's expectations, but you're happy ... I'm more about the team. I always want to see us do well."

Shoji sees a future for Watanabe at libero. She spends time analyzing Ilustre's acrobatic defense and Melissa Villaroman's exceptional anticipation when she returns serve. Watanabe is trying to incorporate the best of their games into hers, hoping her time will come.

The walk-ons have no intention of walking off. And Shoji isn't about to push.

"Every team needs kids that are positive to be around," he says. "They are just good kids who love volleyball. They want to do anything that helps the team. And we ask them to do a lot."

QUICK SETS: Kim Willoughby set the record for most aces in a season. She has 59 now, one more than Angelica Ljungquist in 1996.