Many years ago, Dave Shoji and an adjacent airline passenger were in a conversation when talk turned to their respective occupations.

"When I told him I coached the University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team, he kept waiting for me to say something else," Shoji recalled. "It was like, 'OK and ... (what else?)'

"To many people, I guess, it was inconceivable that could be all you did; that you could make a living or support a family that way," Shoji said.

Not at UH, though, where both Shoji and the program he has run for going on 34 years now have prospered to remarkable lengths.

Just how much will be underlined when his new five-year contract is approved in coming weeks. Shoji is expected to be bumped into the $175,000-a-year neighborhood, approximately a $35,000 raise on his current posted contract of $140,004. A nice place to reside, to be sure.

It is also expected to be something of a milestone at UH. In terms of base salary, it is believed to put Shoji in the top 10 percent to 15 percent nationally among the 316 Division I women's volleyball programs and, more significantly, a plateau never before reached by any of the other head coaches of UH's 19 sports.

For example, UH's highest-paid coach, football's Greg McMackin, who will knock down $1.1 million this year, is barely in the upper 50 percent among his peers. The average salary among the 120 head coaches in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) being listed at $1,055,000.

Of course, in the volleyball realm, you can count on one hand the number of programs — men's or women's — that regularly turn a profit for their athletic departments. Not only have the Rainbow Wahine won four national championships, been a prime component of UH's television, radio and pay-per-view packages and, for 13 years in a row, have led the NCAA in attendance (6,452 average in 2007).

In recognition of that, the new contract also amounts to something of a lifetime achievement award, rewarding a job remarkably well done and encouragement for a strong finishing kick for a program looking for its first national championship since 1987.

This is expected to be the last contract for Shoji who will be 62 in December and whose youngest child, Erik, starts college this fall. As such, it would set his state retirement pay level or so-called "high-three" figure.

Shoji supporters have, for some time, been encouraging UH to "take care" of the only UH coach to win a national championship at the school. When June Jones became the highest-paid state employee, the Board of Regents meeting where the contract was approved was briefly interrupted by people yelling, "What about Shoji?"

Points apparently not lost on athletic director Jim Donovan who, the day he took the job, declared that getting Shoji a new, enhanced contract was one of his priorities.

Indeed, it is testament to Shoji's standing that UH will by far exceed the listed salary range for his position — $76,440 to $143,472, according to a Manoa spokesman — to give him the raise. The UH president has the authority to top the range up to certain levels without regents' approval.

Shoji's contract has come a long way from the "maybe $750" he recalls receiving in 1975. But, then, so, too, has Rainbow Wahine volleyball, which has become UH's most decorated program.

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