Foreign exchange not in effect this year
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
One of the first things you notice about this year's University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team, after the improved, tree-top level overall height, is the thinning of international influence.
A program that once was a veritable United Nations has turned decidedly North American, if not American, in the way of personnel for this season. College volleyball's annual Tower of Babel is losing some of its distinctive foreign accent.
Of the 19 players on the Warriors' roster entering tonight's opener of the Outrigger Hotels Volleyball Invitational against Penn State, 16 are from the United States (five from local shores) and Puerto Rico. Of the three international players, two are from Canada and the other from Brazil.
Compared to where UH has gotten a lot of its marquee performers — Israel, Germany, Serbia, Greece, etc — those are almost homegrown.
For perhaps the first time in a decade, the Warriors are without an Israeli presence. Nor, for the first time in a long time, is there a European to be found on the roster.
This for a program that UCLA coach Al Scates once referred to as the "University of Tel Aviv at O'ahu" for its core of Israeli players. From NCAA national player of the year Yuval Katz in 1995 through Eyal Zimet in 2003, there was a significant presence.
Time was when Israeli flags waved alongside Hawaiian ones and "Hava Nagila" was a staple at the Stan Sheriff Center, where fans raised signs proclaiming "Kosher Kill" with each slam by Katz.
The Warriors didn't pioneer an international presence in volleyball, but they surely helped to popularize it and inspire their share of imitators in the run to three NCAA final fours.
The lessening international profile now, coming as it does after the NCAA just last year ordered UH's 2002 national championship stripped for the use of an ineligible foreign player, is more noticeable. But coach Mike Wilton says it is more coincidence, the result of having several departing international seniors the last two years.
"We haven't gone away from them," Wilton said. Indeed, Wilton maintains the world is still the Warriors' recruiting ground and a commitment remains to recruiting the best-available athletes, whether they be from Kailua, Kona or Kibbutz Ein Hamifrantz, Israel.
"We're working on three (from Europe) now," Wilton said. "Us going away from (international players)? No, I don't see that happening."
Despite the NCAA sanctions that have been on appeal, the years have shown that, on overwhelming balance the international trade has been good for all concerned.
The quality of the experience has kept the recruits coming here and they have helped augment the local and Mainland players to make Hawai'i a fixture in the national rankings while adding to the unique atmosphere that has been UH volleyball.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
