Posted on: Wednesday, August 6, 2003

If there's a player Shoji knows will answer the call, 'It's Lily'

Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

These days when University of Hawai'i volleyball coach Dave Shoji's cell phone starts its telltale ring at 11 p.m., there is usually scant need to check caller ID.

When it goes off at 6:45 a.m., as it did yesterday, there is often little mystery as to whom the caller will be.

"It's Lily (Kahumoku) — again," Shoji says he has come to learn without glancing at the display that indicates, "Lily."

The daily calls, far from a nuisance, are regular reminders that the volleyball season is fast approaching and Shoji's Rainbow Wahine team, Kahumoku and the seniors foremost among them, plan to leave nothing about this one to chance.

With seven seniors — three of them All-Americans — back for a final shot at a so-far elusive national championship, playfulness has given way to a serious sense of purpose well in advance of Saturday's first practice.

On the biggest squad — 25 players — UH says it has prepared to take to a preseason camp, the heart of the seniors beats loudest.

Twice this group has advanced to an NCAA final four and both times — in Richmond, Va., in 2000 and New Orleans last year — it has come home without a banner to hang in the rafters of the Stan Sheriff Center.

Now, with five returning starters and the best chance anybody on the roster might ever have to earn a ring, there is no mistaking the urgency of the mission to get the Rainbow Wahine's first title since 1987.

"The mood, as we've gotten closer to training camp, is much different," Shoji said. "It is much more serious. Lily calls me every day about something she is concerned about. I wouldn't say she is worried, but she just wants the season to be everything she has dreamed of, so she's not letting any detail go, from where we're staying on the road to how we're traveling, she wants to know what's best for us.

"She's concerned because she wants a good season. She wants the team to be good so she is asking me questions, making comments about things we can become better at. And, I welcome the calls."

But it isn't just odd-hour phone calls and suggestions that tell the mood of this team heading toward the season-opening State Farm NACWAA Tournament on Aug. 22.

"Kim Willoughby has just turned it on in the weight room," Shoji says. "Nobody's been missing the workouts. They're all there every day now. People (used to) miss here and there. Now, if you do, you're being questioned about why you are missing by everybody.

"They want everything to be right. They want to be pushed. They want to have a way to communicate with the coaches and each other."

In short, they head into the 2003 season wanting to make it all it can be.