Oda's odyssey nearing end with final matches for UH

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

As his career winds down, Malino Oda says: "When I look back, that's what I'll remember — a bunch of guys playing for the guy next to them." Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

A career at Cal awaited. It was the only school Oda pursued, captivated by its combination of "academics, athletics and proximity to the ocean." But Berkeley was a bust.

Oda brought his rackets back home to the relative obscurity of University of Hawai'i tennis. Here the Rainbows, against their will, have become the ultimate road warriors in his senior year. Jim Schwitters — also in his final year after 37 as coach — scheduled the entire season on the road because the UH courts are unfit for Division I competition. The season ends this weekend at the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.

Oda and his teammates — from Argentina, Australia, South Africa, France and St. Louis — have tried to transform the ridiculous into the sublime. They have invested too many years to let a simple thing like neglected courts ruin their devotion to the game, and one another.

"There's a bunch of us that are 23," Oda says. "We're all individuals, we all know what we want. We can sit down and argue, but it never affects our team camaraderie. When I look back, that's what I'll remember — a bunch of guys playing for the guy next to them. I want to win because if I lose, he loses, too."

Oda is 15-13 in his final season, playing first and second singles. His four-year record is 71-45. He has also achieved WAC all-academic honors each year.

If the story sounds familiar it is because Malino's brother, Kula, now a coach at UH-Hilo, stayed in just enough points and hit just enough winners to come out with a similar record at Manoa a few years ago. Both also have doubles-friendly games, with an innate feel for the confines of the court.

There the similarities end.

"My brother was easy," Malino says. "He's a lot more coachable than I am."

Kula and Schwitters acknowledge only that Malino came to college with the bigger game. Kula says Malino's game has grown.

"His game has changed a lot," Kula says. "As a junior, he was a baseliner, hitting big shots from the baseline. Nowadays he puts a lot of pressure on. He's a lot smarter now. He plays geometric tennis, his tactics are much better and he can finish it off at the net."

Malino could finish it off pretty much anywhere in high school. He never went into a match believing he could lose. Even on the Mainland, when he knew players had more talent, he felt it would be just a matter of time until he could think of a way to win.

"Because I didn't know the opponent, it was harder and took longer to figure it out," Malino says. "By the time I figured him out, sometimes I had lost, so my confidence level was a little less over there.

"Being from Hawai'i I think that's the major disadvantage in tennis — you do not adapt your game to variety. You don't play for variety. You play to beat the next guy up or down from you."

Malino's game had to grow, but he still relies on his ability to "think his way" into a win.

"Malino is a very good player," Schwitters says. "He has the maturity like Kula that he believes, 'I'm going to think my way out of this, I'm going to find a way to win this.' Those two guys battle it out. Malino is willing to wait an hour and a half until he finds that one little window of opportunity."

It is a skill that has become more valuable as his tennis career winds down and his thinking turns to a career. His majors are economics, computer science and finding a way to stay in Hawai'i the rest of his life.

If only it was as easy as high school tennis.