Fresh off the University of Hawai'i's last NCAA Regional appearance, softball coach Bob Coolen was on deck to be honored during a Board of Regents meeting a couple seasons back.

TV cameras and reporters were on hand that day in the Manoa Campus Center and spectators were lined two- and three-deep.

But a couple of items on the agenda ahead of Coolen was the marquee matter of football coach June Jones' then-groundbreaking contract.

When it was time to honor softball, the crowds and media were gone.

Such can be the realities of athletic life on campus for the so-called non-revenue sports, which is why it is good to see Coolen and the Rainbow Wahine flourishing this spring. Off to its best start in nearly a decade and rewriting school home run records, UH is opening eyes even as it is building up steam for next week's start of the Western Athletic Conference season.

At 24-6 through yesterday's opening of the Hawai'i Invitational Tournament, the Rainbow Wahine have been gaining a deserved foothold on the stage. Not always an easy thing to do in their sport here. For they occupy a place on the crowded spring semester calendar where it can be hard to compete for attention, wedged as they are somewhere between basketball, baseball and spring football.

Yet, here they are being recognized, not only here but in the polls at 25th. They are getting headlines even if TV time has been scarce. Suddenly, their corner of the Manoa campus quarry can be a place to be. Especially if the Rainbow Wahine can take their early pace into conference. The schedule sets up nicely building toward a late season showdown with perennial WAC power and rival Fresno State at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium in five weeks.

For the moment, though, you're glad to see the reflected attention come the way of Coolen and the program he has headed. He's been around so long — 21 years, 16 as head coach — quietly putting so much into the program that he has become a fixture on campus. As such, it can sometimes be easy to overlook his accomplishments. Never mind that he has produced all five NCAA appearances in the school's history, had a winning percentage closing in on 60 percent and suffered but one losing season in the last 13 years.

That's the thing about the softball program, it has been steady over the long haul. It has been consistently good, rarely down, mixing in a few truly exceptional years. All without hint of scandal.

The hope is Coolen and UH will be back before the regents this summer for their own moment in the sun to celebrate.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.