In 1984, University High graduate Dana Takahara made a decision that no doubt caused a few people to shake their heads.

Offered a scholarship to then-Hawai'i Pacific College she instead chose to pay her own way and walk on to the University of Hawai'i women's basketball team.

This at a school that had scant history of rewarding walk-ons with playing time and starting jobs, much less scholarships.

Tonight, a quarter-century later, finds Takahara-Dias at the beginning of a much more daunting leap of faith, opening a UH head coaching career in an exhibition at the Stan Sheriff Center amid the most trying times in the 36-year history of Rainbow Wahine basketball.

And, against the Sea Warriors, of all people.

"Ironic, huh?" Takahara-Dias acknowledged.

The path of greatest resistance has generally been Takahara-Dias' avenue of choice. Few easy roads have been taken in an eclectic career that now brings her full circle after stops in coaching, education and city government.

When she arrived at UH as an 18-year-old would-be point guard, she was admittedly "in awe...(and) very much out of my element." Yet, in two years her dedication and drive earned her a starting job and a scholarship.

By her senior year, even though she was no longer starting, she was voted team captain by her peers and became an inspiration to other walk-ons who would follow in her sneakers.

The quest before her these days is even more challenging. The Rainbow Wahine are coming off their most painful season, 8-23 (4-12 Western Athletic Conference), an in-season shuffling of coaches, pending legal action and topsy turvy 11th-hour hiring process.

With all that as a backdrop, nobody was surprised the Rainbow Wahine were picked to finish last in the nine-member WAC this season.

But even as she scrambled to fill an incomplete schedule, add some players and gain her new team's confidence, Takahara-Dias has embraced the opportunity and dedicated herself to the task.

Just as she did as a freshman. Her UH coach, Vince Goo, said: "I've seen her accomplish so much, I'm at the point now where I don't believe there's something she can't do."

Said Takahara-Dias: "For me, as I look back (tonight), when it really hits me, when I sit down again on that bench, I'll be reminded of how I got here and very much appreciate the journey."