Hawai'i's first clue to Tara Hittle's unique attributes should have been her Doherty High School prom picture. There was the 2003 Colorado Player of the Year in volleyball, all-area basketball star and homecoming queen, with her date at her hip — literally. It was her 4-year-old nephew.

When she got here a few months later, Hittle was all braces and big, Stan Sheriff Center-sized grins. Within weeks, she was doing fairly sophisticated imitations of UH coach Dave Shoji and lightening up practices to the point where Shoji begged her to stop.

He didn't have it in him to stifle her though. Who does, and why would they want to? While Shoji was just coming to grips with who and what he had recruited out of Colorado Springs, his team was unbeaten and in the midst of a remarkable season. Hittle was on her way to Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year honors.

"You can't be down around Hittle," Shoji said then with a surrender of a shrug. "It's just not possible."

Five years, four all-WAC seasons and three positions later, Hittle will play her last home match for the Rainbow Wahine tonight. The sixth-ranked Rainbows close their regular season against Cal Poly, and seniors Nickie Thomas, Jamie Houston, Jessica Keefe and Hittle will be honored when it is over.

Hittle is as likely to cry as cut up. Shoji now sees her analytical side. She has shown, through that magical freshman season, the injury that caused so much grief the next two years, and the past two seasons of turmoil and triumph, that there is much more to her than smiles and pranks.

"It's her personality ... her ability to make everybody on the team laugh, yet be someone who is respected and a role model," said assistant coach Ryan Tsuji, who will also leave this season after seven years. "She says something and people listen. She has this way of communicating. The way she comes across is the way she plays. She just enjoys being out there.

'FUNNIEST PLAYER'

"And her relationship with the coaches ... Dave said on the radio last week that Hittle was the funniest player he's ever had. That's helped her make her own niche. In the beginning she had the braces and she kinda owned to it. People were drawn to her personality — fans and players."

Hittle is the Rainbow Wahine every Hawai'i recruit spends time with — the coaches make sure. She can engage anyone, from small kids at camps to the "Aunties" who loyally sit in the corner at every match.

In her five-year career, she has a slew of double-doubles and recruiting successes. Hittle is the first player in WAC history to earn all-conference honors at three positions, starting at opposite as a freshman, rotating to the left side for two seasons and now finishing as libero.

She is the quintessential "ball control-type hitter" every elite team has and every wannabe doesn't. The UH coaches never planned for her to play libero this season, and worried Hittle could get lost in their hitting depth. When Liz Ka'aihue got hurt early, Hittle leaped into the lurch and hasn't let go.

She came here as a dynamic hitter able to increase Hawai'i's "wow factor" in a single, big, bound while enhancing the defense with her passing and digging. She will leave at the position that will dictate her volleyball future, a lanky libero with the innate ability to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right words of comfort or goofiness for any teammate.

Nevada coach Devin Scruggs is glad to see Hittle finally go. The Hawai'i senior has terrorized the Wolf Pack from that first year she lifted the 'Bows to a five-set victory in Reno by hitting .545 with 19 kills, to the .706 she threw at them last year and the 26 perfect passes this year.

Scruggs is also sad to say goodbye, and told Hittle that in an usual way this season.

"I've always been real nice to her, she recruited one of my friends, I know her a little," Hittle recalled. "Last time we were in Nevada she was like, 'Libero, huh?' and I was like, 'How 'bout that?' And she's like, 'Shoot, you can come hit on my team.' "

Opponents can see her talent and sense her good nature. Hittle puts it out there for everyone. Last year, she decided to play basketball for the 'Bows after laying off since high school. It took those teammates about 10 minutes — or the time it takes Hittle to fall about six times on a basketball court — to realize what they had in store.

But first, Hittle humored basketball junior — now roommate — Megan Tinnin by asking her to go shoot, because it "had been three years."

"I figured, you can't lose your touch completely," Tinnin recalled. "We go in there. She's not even laughing, not smiling. She starts dribbling the ball with two hands. I'm looking at her like, oh my gosh. She starts shooting the ball with two hands, no form, clanking it off the backboard. She passed the ball to me and missed me by 10 feet.

"She was not even laughing. I don't know whether to laugh or if she was serious. This went on for five minutes. I was about to call Coach Bolla and say she doesn't know anything. Finally, she starts cracking up and asks, 'Did you really think I was that bad?' She laughed so hard she was crying."

STARTING OVER

Hittle started nine games at power forward, despite beginning her season in January, and averaged 7-plus points and rebounds. She will play again this season, to Tinnin's relief.

"Obviously, she hadn't played in like 30 years ... to come out and start was a big deal," Tinnin said. "She definitely brought a lot of fun, but fun is another name for Tara."

Hittle also found a whole new collegiate athletic world and fell in love with it: On a team where you are not expected to win national titles every year and wallop WAC teams relentlessly, winning takes on a new meaning.

Hittle vividly remembers her first win with the basketball team. The players reacted as if they had won the WAC championship, running and screaming around the locker room, Amy Kotani high-fiving everyone.

"It made winning so much fun," Hittle said. "Obviously, it's fun to win in volleyball, but sometimes we don't consider it a big deal.

"It's a little less stressful in basketball, a little less expectations. I guess it's a good balance of sports to have."

PAINFUL TIMES

You can find the basketball players — some of the "30 teammates" Hittle proudly brags about — at volleyball, wearing shirts with her face on the front.

Her "new" sport helped her move on from the most difficult time of her athletic life, after she suffered from "bone issues" in her right ankle and leg during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Hittle played through that first season, but five matches into 2006 it was simply too painful; ironically, she was averaging a career-high 3 1/2 kills and digs at the time.

Hittle grew immensely while she watched her teammates in relative, and rare, silence.

"Before the injury I was like ... young athletes don't really know about other parts of life," Hittle said. "Sports is all that matters and you're in control of everything and can do anything. When I was hurt, it was the first time in my life I wasn't in control. I really felt like there was nothing I could do. I tried to be tough and play, but the pain was unbearable. I didn't want to give up, but I had to let go. That was really hard as an athlete — to just watch your team and not be able, physically, to help them at all.

"I needed something else, a goal. I just felt kind of empty. When you define yourself as something and that something is taken away ... That's when my relationship with God got stronger. It was amazing. It just felt like everything was OK. I didn't have to worry."

She and Tsuji are a big part of the chapel volleyball shares before matches, with anywhere up to 13 players participating. Hittle also has given testimonies to groups. Her faith is at the forefront of her life, along with that fun-loving spirit people gravitate toward.

She is closing on Kanoe Kamana'o at third on Hawai'i's career digs list, has been one of the 'Bows most dynamic hitters — particularly before the injury — and will leave as one of the school's finest passers. But when people remember her, the first thing they think of will be that braces-filled freshman smile and laughter in her big, bright eyes.

Former teammates will recall the time she practically whiffed a spike, and later bragged about her "change-up," and how Hittle told them early on that she wasn't always smiling, "It's just that my lips are stuck in my braces."

A group of budding young players will fondly recall when Hittle was their coach at volleyball camp. While most campers had to run when they lost drills, these players had to spell out M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, using only their okoles. Eventually, the whole gym was watching.

"It was funny, fun, a great breath of fresh air for the kids," UH associate Kari Ambrozich recalled. "It was totally unique. Only she would think of something that creative. That's Hittle."

Her humor is spontaneous. It can be physical — the way she runs and falls, sometimes accidentally, offers hours of fun for her entire basketball family — but mostly is just goofy and witty. If the WAC had a first team for comedy she would probably be MVP.

"She's quick-witted," Ambrozich said. "She can be sarcastic, but she's never cruel. She thinks quick on her feet. Obviously, she is smart to be able to think that fast. She's not sitting home preparing her material."

Hittle can be hysterical and a realist, dynamic and hard-working, a goofy teammate and a confident, proven leader who has led by what she has accomplished and what she has sacrificed the last five years. She walked out of practice one day this season in obvious pain, saying nothing. Within 10 minutes of her return, nearly every teammate had come to her privately, to be assured she was OK. When Hittle is not obviously, uproariously happy, they worry.

"She keeps things light," Ambrozich said. "One of the things I've thought from the very beginning is how much she loves playing. A lot of times in this sport, especially at the college level, it can feel like a job and you lose your love for the game when you have to go in every day and work hard. Hittle loves coming in every day."

JOYFUL FINISH

In Hittle's head, spiritual growth and the "awesome" support the Rainbows receive are the best things to come out of her time here, then volleyball.

"It's awesome playing for a good team and being a big factor on a good team," Hittle said. "It's a pretty intense game.

"Honestly, my freshman year was really shocking. I was just a kid out of high school and I thought college volleyball was awesome. There was no drama that year. It was just perfect. We worked so hard and had so much fun. I remember thinking, 'If this is college volleyball, I'm good with that.' ... Even though we lost, it was still the most amazing thing I've experienced."

She describes her final year as "a definite joy." Those who remain post-Hittle, hope her special brand of joy will remain, somehow, when she is gone.

"Every team needs someone to keep it light," Shoji said. "I'm not sure that person is ever going to be like Hittle again."

For Hittle, next year will be all about student teaching as she pursues a career in secondary education. Those who know her hope she will also coach. The kids coming out of that program will have their priorities straight, and have tons of fun.