Rainbow Wahine Volleyball

Before we came out to Hawaii, Zac was stationed in El Salvador for 13 months. Towards the end of his time there I went down to visit him for a little less than a week. (I have a few posts about the trip - browse through the July 2008 stuff.) On one of the days, Zac drove me up to the top of the (long dormant) volcano just outside of San Salvador. We parked the car and started milling about the paths that ran around the rim of the crater. It was very green and very beautiful. It was difficult to get a picture that adequately showed how deep the crater was. My abilities of showing depth of field on my camera are lacking. After we had taken in the scenery we headed back down towards the car. On the way up the path was a group of people speaking English. We stopped to say hi, as it seems like the thing to do when you're in a foreign country and encounter people speaking the same language as you.

As we talked to the fellow Americans, another man approached their group. He joined the conversation just as Zac was telling them about why he was in El Sal (the military) and where we were going next (Hawaii). The recently arrived man's eyebrows popped up and he smiled. "I'm the coach of the women's volleyball team for Hawaii," he said. Just to confirm that he wasn't pulling our leg, he reached into his wallet and handed us his business card - Dave Shoji, Women's Volleyball Coach. It looked official - it had the University of Hawaii logo on it and everything, but seriously? What are the odds of running into a person from Hawaii at the top of a volcano in El Salvador?

Coach Shoji told us that if we needed anything when we got to Hawaii to give him a call. Zac and I were still a little stunned to have run into someone who knew Hawaii intimately on our walk. We thanked him and our two groups parted ways. As we walked back to the car Zac and I laughed at the thought that one of few contact people we had in Hawaii was the coach of the women's volleyball team. I should note that both Zac and I love women's volleyball, especially at the college level. Nebraska is routinely a national contender and Minnesota's team is pretty good so we were excited that we had met the volleyball coach. The water polo coach - while I'm sure he is a pretty cool person too - would not have garnered the same reaction from us.

When we got back to Zac's apartment I looked up hawaiiathletics.com and sure enough, Dave Shoji is the coach of the perennial contender Hawaii Rainbow Wahine. When we got to Hawaii we made a point to go see some of the volleyball matches. As the NCAA tournament started I asked Zac, "Should I send the coach a 'good luck' e-mail? Do you even think he'll remember who we are?" Zac was confident that we were probably the only Navy people moving to Hawaii that Coach Shoji had met on his trip to El Sal, so the odds of him remembering us were decent. So I sent Coach Shoji this e-mail:

Coach Shoji,

My husband and I met you this past July in El Salvador. We were at the top of a volcano just outside of San Salvador. You gave us your business card when we mentioned that we were moving to Hawaii this fall, due to my husband's new Navy orders. We arrived in Hawaii in September and have enjoyed watching your team play on television. Today we finally made it to campus to see a game in person. We cheered loudly and were thrilled to see you win the WAC championship. We will certainly be following the team as it goes through the NCAA tournament.

Wishing you and your team continued success,

Kate and Zac Kotschwar

He sent back:

kate and zac, thanks so much for coming to the game. we hope your time here has been good. keep in touch and let me know if you need anything, aloha, dave

First off, I was flattered that he used his name, not title, to sign the note. How very familiar of him! And the fact that he again offered his assistance just confirmed to me that he wasn't just being polite at the top of the volcano.

Flash forward one year - tonight the Rainbow Wahine take on New Mexico State. Coach Shoji has 999 career wins as the Wahine coach. He has been the head coach of this team for 35 years. Tonight's win would make 1,000. Only one other coach in D-I women's volleyball has that many wins. (The coach at UCLA.) That, folks, is what we call impressive.

I am confident that the Rainbow Wahine will win tonight, and I am confident that after the win I will send Coach Shoji, er, 'Dave', an e-mail congratulating him.

For a interesting article about Coach Shoji and the Rainbow Wahine program, check out this article from the Honolulu Advertiser.

We're not going to the game tonight, but we'll be watching it on TV. And we'll be cheering: Let's go Bows!