Every layer of Kari Gregory's life leads to a more surprising place.

She is the kid from Sin City who has grown into the nurturing influence on this year's Rainbow Wahine volleyball team.

She is the all-WAC senior middle blocker who stuffed Oregon into submission at last year's NCAA first-round match, but is now without a position.

She is the Daddy's Girl who chased her parents' car from the one summer camp she ever attended, begging them not to leave her, yet was absolutely sure she wanted to fly 3,000 miles to go away to college.

She has been to three NCAA regionals in as many years and plays an integral role on this year's 10th-ranked Hawai'i team, which takes on Utah State tonight. But for all the pressure and prominence that comes with that success, volleyball is the least intense sport in her life.

Gregory came here in 2003 from Las Vegas, a city that screams out dysfunction. Yet she is part of a family so close that, even now, with three grown children and a family business that provides air conditioning and plumbing for 80 percent of The Strip, it spends every summer traveling together.

Kim Gregory, who met wife Debbie on a water skiing blind date in 1975, is owner of USA Racing Partners' Unlimited Hydroplane team. Sons Matt and Adam share crew chief duties. Kari is operations manager/public relations and liaison for the team's charity involvement, most prominently the Make A Wish Foundation.

She is also the one who "lights up" a pit area with her upbeat presence, then watches races with her fingers nervously crossed. It is a sport that lives on the edge, with frightening speed on one side and awful possibilities on the other.

The $500,000 boats — with annual operating costs of $420,000 — are capable of going 200 mph, produce more than 2,500 horsepower and have turbine engines that once powered the military's Chinook helicopters. Drivers are in an F-16 cockpit, hooked up to oxygen with an escape hatch at their feet.

Spectacular "flips" are the stuff of legend and much of the sport's notoriety, along with high-profile owners such as Henry Kaiser, Bernie Little and Guy Lombardo. In 1988, two boats flipped side-by-side. A boat once had a 720-degree flip. Some have continued racing after 360-degree flips. But mostly, flips cause substantial damage and can be fatal.

TREMENDOUS HIGHS

The Gregorys have experienced tremendous highs since getting into the sport with smaller boats back in the '80s. They won Hawai'i's Hydrofest in the '90s and the 100th anniversary of the APBA Gold Cup in 2004. The next year, Kim bought the hull of the former Miss Budweiser.

But in 2000 their driver, George Stratton, was killed in San Diego. Stratton, to date the last hydroplane driver killed, was part of the family. His death was devastating. Debbie still can't watch races, positioning herself behind an official and asking for updates on the turns.

"Ever since George died I have not been able to watch," Debbie admits. "But I have to do it because I love it so much. I love the before and after and love the people we meet. But the actual race scares the you-know-what out of me."

In this unique sport, the Gregorys go into a race "80 percent hoping it all goes well and 20 percent competing," according to Kari.

"Honestly, my family is more about finishing well, with the boat in one piece, than winning," she said. "In that aspect, it's a little different than volleyball. In that obviously we want to win it all. But I think, with everything we've been through with our driver getting killed, my dad's whole outlook on boat racing has changed. He just wants the boat to come back in one piece and see it compete. My dad says every race, 'Why do I do this, why do I do this?' "

Why do they? Because the kids love it and boat racing has become the family bond, and the Gregory bond is as bullet-proof as that cockpit.

FAMILY IS HER HOBBY

Kari calls her mother and brothers at least four times a day and says her only hobby is "family."

Kim and Debbie have seen half her matches the past five years. The family spends every Christmas together at Kapalua and summers on the water with a close-knit community of racing friends and, mostly, each other.

"Kim felt if we did something as a family such as this and everybody had a part in it, it would keep the kids' interest," said Debbie. "One of our sons is about to get married and the other has been on his own for some time, yet they will drop everything if their dad calls. It's pretty amazing. It goes both ways. They know we are there for them no matter what. Losing our driver really opened everybody's eyes and taught us how fragile life is. Maybe we're close because we shared something so devastating."

The "kids'" interest seems to be growing. Matt and Adam Gregory are more involved now than ever and Kari can't wait to get back out on the water.

STRANGE SEASON

Well, she can wait until December, when she will play in the NCAA Tournament and graduate. It has been a strange season. The 12th-best blocker in the country last year lost her position to sophomore Amber Kaufman when coach Dave Shoji decided the team needed more offense behind the setter.

"It was really difficult because I just like Kari as a person so much and she works so hard," Shoji said. "She's been someone that's done everything for the program. It's one of the tougher calls to take a senior out who has played well in the past. She was not playing poorly, but I thought we needed to get more out of the position.

"She's so mature about everything in life she's been able to handle this even though it's extremely disappointing to her. But she realizes she still has a role and she's still important."

Gregory's role, even when she was a part-time starter her first two years, traditionally grows in the postseason. A year ago, she had 15 stuffs and hit .700 in a three-game sweep of Oregon in the NCAA's first round.

Her blocking can be spectacular. Her attacking has always lagged behind, in part because a shoulder injury in her final junior tournament that prevents her from hitting high. All her velocity comes from rotating across the ball, not down on it.

She has taken the demotion better than she would have early in her career, she admits. She doesn't like it, but she is dealing with it. Former roommate Cayley Thurlby, who played behind All-American Kanoe Kamana'o four years, is much of the reason.

"Cayley definitely gives me inspiration because she could have started anywhere else in the country," Gregory said. "I think the hardest part is having it and having it taken away, especially my senior year."

Like Thurlby, Gregory's role remains critical even if she doesn't play. Her joy is contagious and it would take a lot not to like her. She neglects nothing and no one.

"I think she's grown into a very mature and independent person in the five years I've known her," said team manager Ryan Tsuji. "She's so much stronger now and she doesn't let as many things bother her as she did when she first got here. It's been a challenging year for her, and she's continued to put the team first and always tries to help the girls in any way she can. Whenever something goes wrong or unexpected on the team, she's usually one of the first to know, and steps in to help resolve the situation."

IT'S ABOUT THE TEAM

The focus now, more than ever, is on the team. Gregory is now the one encouraging the reserves to try and "beat up" on the starting lineup in practice, to make them better. "If we're not playing well and they're dominating," she figures, "then what's the point?"

To her, the Rainbow Wahine are her family in Hawai'i, and have been since the first day of her recruiting trip. That hooked her immediately, and left Debbie "crying like a baby" on the lana'i of the Sheraton Waikiki. The woman can deal with big-time boat racing — her husband says she is more competitive than he is — but leaving her little girl on an island tore her up.

But mom, too, has grown up these past five years. The Gregorys are about as involved as any parents can be from 3,000 miles away. They travel to matches often, organize dinners and post-game outings for other parents on the road and took Jessica Keefe to the doctor in Reno last week when she was the first of many to get sick.

Kim even offered to put air conditioning in the Rainbows' stifling practice gym. After helping build the Mirage volcano and Bellagio water fountains, it didn't seem like a big deal to him.

The real question now is, what do Kim and Debbie do with their time when Kari's graduation ends 23 years of watching their kids play sports.

"They're freaking out," said Kari, who could extend the streak if she is picked up by a professional team in Europe after graduation. "I told my mom she needs to get a hobby."

For the past five years, it's been hydroplane racing and Rainbow Wahine volleyball. The Gregorys have few complaints.

"Even though the last year has not worked out the way she had hoped, all in all it's been a great life experience," Debbie said. "It will make her a better person in the long run."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.