Want a suggestion as to whether to buy a certain stock? Need advice while considering taking that plunge on gold or pork belly futures?

Ask the almost clairvoyant folks who coach women's volleyball in the Western Athletic Conference.

OK, maybe not.

But when it comes to forecasting the champion of their conference, the coaches have not only hit it right four consecutive years, they've nailed it 10 of the last 11.

In fact, history tells us they have been practically unanimous in their picking of the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine. (By conference mandate coaches cannot vote for their own teams, so UH's Dave Shoji was forced to vote for someone else.).

Never mind, of course, that the Rainbow Wahine's heavy-handed dominance should have left little room for serious debate at balloting time, rendering it practically a North Korean election slam dunk. Thirteen consecutive regular-season titles tend to make a pretty solid statement.

Which kind of makes you wonder sometimes what in the name of Teraflex the coaches were thinking in 2004 when, for the first time since 1998, they weren't united in picking UH.

But after a 13-1 UH finish that year, the coaches have certainly learned from the error of their ways and have unfailingly tabbed the Rainbow Wahine ever since. And UH hasn't let them, or its legion of fans, down.

By comparison the WAC football coaches are trying to get it right once in a row after picking Fresno State last year then watching Boise State run the table. This following a run of Boise State winning or sharing five football crowns in six years.

To be sure, the Rainbow Wahine have much more than precedent to stand on in a run for what would be a record 14th consecutive WAC regular-season championship in 2009. There are All-WAC performers Kanani Danielson, Amber Kaufman, Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Dani Mafua, key elements from a Rainbow Wahine team went 31-4 (15-1 in conference), reached the final eight and finished seventh in the last poll returns. Not to mention 2007 starting libero Liz Ka'aihue and emerging playmaker Stephanie Ferrell return.

So, too, does their coach, Shoji, who will probably hit the milestone 1,000th career victory somewhere in the midst of the conference season. Say somewhere, for example, around mid-October.

That would be altogether appropriate for someone whose teams have so dominated the WAC as to be practically automatic picks year in and year out.