For several years now University of Tennessee softball coach Ralph Weekly has joked with his Hawai'i counterpart Bob Coolen about how the two longtime friends should hook up in their twilight years.

Weekly, who has a few years on the 49-year-old Coolen, likes to say that when he retires he'll return to Hawai'i and become a volunteer assistant with the Rainbow Wahine.

It is a notion that invariably brings smiles and laughter all around.

Except this week, when their teams meet in a Super Regional in Knoxville, Tenn., from which only one can advance to next week's NCAA World Series.

For their best two-of-three series that starts Friday, the memories of their good times in the off-season will take a backseat. The family reunions and tall tales will have to wait.

For two schools so geographically disparate, the ties that bind the Rainbow Wahine (49-11) and Volunteers (57-5) are remarkable. Among the 269 teams UH could have played, the Rainbow Wahine get sent to the Eastern time zone where they find an opponent with two players from Hawai'i, one of whom has two sisters on the UH roster. And, in the opposing dugout, a coaching staff composed of former Hawai'i residents.

"Unreal, huh?" Coolen says.

Indeed, if Coolen steps into the office of co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly, he will see a 3-foot picture of the beach at Bellows. A close-to-the-soul reminder of what the Weeklys call their "other" home. "I really love Bellows," Ralph said. "It is my most relaxing place in the world."

Weekly spent 21 years in the Air Force, including a four-year stint as commander of special investigations at Hickam. It was a period in which he coached in youth leagues, oversaw the Hickam and Air Force Hawai'i softball teams and built enduring friendships. It was that experience and respect for Hawai'i athletes, he maintains, that prompted the Weeklys to recruit players from Hawai'i to Pacific Lutheran and, now, Tennessee and gave them the contacts to do so.

Hawai'i-bred Liane Horiuchi and Anita Manuma play for the Volunteers, and Manuma's two sisters, Valana and Malama, are at UH.

Weekly's experience with the U.S. Olympic teams and Team USA also prompted him to encourage Coolen to get involved on that level, cementing their friendship.

As for Weekly eventually joining him in the UH dugout, Coolen chuckles at the thought. "He's got too good of a gig at Tennessee now. I don't see him walking away from that success for a while."

Said Weekly: "Bob and I were probably better friends until I started recruiting players from Hawai'i's backyard."

This week, then, they'll at least be the best of enemies.

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