Goo taught life and basketball

• Graduation days (graphic)

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

"The measure of success is how people go through your program and how they end up," says Vince Goo. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

He will, of course, leave more than one legacy when he retires after this season.

Goo's final home games are tonight, against Nevada, and Saturday, against Fresno State. The opener of next week's Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be his 500th as the Rainbow Wahine head coach.

That is a lot of one-liners. Goo's sense of humor surfaces most in the crucial minutes of games. In the midst of working the referees he would engage them, or anyone who would listen at the scorer's table, in conversation. It always concluded with a punchline.

Last week in Tulsa, all the statisticians donned aloha shirts after the game and waited for Goo in the tunnel with a retirement gift. How many coaches can claim that kind of legacy?

"He will be missed in Tulsa," Golden Hurricane coach Kathy McConnell says. "No doubt."

He will be missed most in Manoa.

In his 17 years, Goo's teams have won two out of every three times they have played and advanced to the postseason 10 times. There have been three honorable mention All-Americans (Judy Mosley, Nani Cockett, Raylene Howard) and dozens of all-conference and all-academic honors. He leaves a legacy of loyalty and passion for the program and sport.

But for all his competitive success, meticulous game preparation, punishing practices, gifts for teaching fundamentals and ability to adapt to his talent instead of the other way around, Goo's most lasting legacy lives and breathes.

All 41 student-athletes who finished their eligibility with him at UH left with a degree; Michelle Gabriel, Natasja Allen and Christen Roper will soon make it 44.

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Bill Nepfel, who hired Goo as a part-time UH assistant in 1984, believes most coaches claim education as a priority, but don't follow through.

"Vince always backed it up with actions and his graduation rate backs that up," says Nepfel, now the assistant athletic director in charge of compliance at University of San Francisco. "He never had a player bigger than the program.

"You always had to be a good person on the court and off. He never let the winning part supersede the rest."

Almost all the Rainbow Wahine who played for Goo were — and are — well educated and watched over. His program is known as much for its nurturing nature as its structured discipline.

It allowed Goo to win with players who were never highly recruited. Nepfel knew Goo could do it long before he left for USF, pitching Goo for the job as he got on the plane.

"I knew if they hired him, it wasn't going to be about Vince," Nepfel said. "It was going to be about the team and getting the team to improve and the program to improve. The program had a lot of room for improvement when I left."

Nepfel hired Goo for his local perspective and because he felt confident in Goo's ability to run practice while the program's only fulltime coach was away recruiting.

What he didn't know was that Goo's only previous experience coaching females — at Kaiser High School— was a disaster, at least in his mind.

"He said it was terrible, girls would be crying all the time," recalls Goo's wife, Gay. "He told me he'd never coach girls again."

But the coaching bug, and Nepfel's need for a dedicated person in a ridiculously under-paid position, persuaded Goo to change his mind and get out of teaching — at least off the basketball court. To this day, what he enjoys most about basketball is teaching the skills and watching the improvement, whether it be from Monday to Thursday or October to March.

Goo changed his mind again a year ago, after realizing his seven recruits and assistants Da Houl, Serenda Valdez and Gavin Petersen needed more time to make the transition. Goo wanted to retire last March, but eventually decided to give it one more year.

"He's one of the great coaches in the game, and I'll just miss him terribly," Tulsa's McConnell says. "His integrity shows as a coach and the way he relates with his players. We play teams year in and year out from all over the country and his players are always the classiest. It starts from the top."

It ends on the wall of Goo's office, where the pictures of his graduates hang. "Believe me, you didn't want to be the one to mess that up," Howard recalled.

Honestly, it doesn't even end there. Goo says his definition of success can change with a phone call from a graduate, or about one.

"The measure of success is how people go through your program and how they end up," he says. "It's constantly being updated.

"You need to have a genuine caring for student-athletes to see them do well. It's not about making every basket or winning every game. You just want to make sure they know they've never lost until they stop trying."

Sometime, probably in the next week, Goo will be free to give all this up. He plans to play more golf, enjoy his grandchildren — "when I get some" — and possibly learn to cook.

His first try was as disastrous as that first season coaching girls.

"All we did was ask him to make rice," his wife says. "He made it green, put food color in it. We all went ooooh. We had to close our eyes and eat it."

Clearly, his sense of humor is anything but retiring. His list of legacies probably won't stop expanding either.

"I think his legacy is that he instills in you, in so many ways, the good things about life," says Houl, who played for Goo then came back to assist him.

"That's why so many former players give back to the program, why most teach and bond with kids. That's what he's passed on to how many players he's coached in 17 years. Our philosophy of life was planted during our time here."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.