Figuratively, the shoes are huge.
They are the shoes worn by No. 2 in all-time victories among Division I women’s volleyball coaches.
The guy named the coach of the NCAA’s 25th anniversary team. A USA Volleyball All-Time Great Coach, twice the national coach of the year.
Someone who never had a losing season in 42 years, whose teams held the national attendance record from 1995 through 2012.
And someone who, two months from now, will be permanently looking down from the concourse wall after his plaque is hung following the UH Sports Circle of Honor enshrinement ceremony at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Literally, the shoes are not that big. And that’s how Robyn Ah Mow-Santos has to look at it as she replaces her former coach and mentor.
She and Dave Shoji both wear 91⁄2s.
The former Hawaii All-America setter knows that to be true because, at least once, Ah Mow-Santos was missing one of hers and had to ask if Shoji had taken it.
It’s that perspective that the 41-year-old has to have. Otherwise, if she thinks about it for any length of time, it will become overwhelming as she takes over the most storied program at her alma mater.
What was she thinking, even applying for the job, six months after she and her family moved to Las Vegas due to her husband’s military reassignment? Just some three months after having her third child, one born with Down Syndrome?
“I knew what I was getting into,” said Ah Mow-Santos, an assistant to Shoji for seven seasons.
More importantly, perhaps, she knows how not to become overwhelmed by the pressures, external and internal. One doesn’t become a three-time Olympian and U.S. team captain being distracted by the unimportant.
Does it matter that she has no head coaching experience? That she will be one of a very few women heading an elite program?
Those who know Ah Mow-Santos say no, including the former Wahine that Ah Mow-Santos said she grew up idolizing.
“No one can question her passion for the game,” said Mahina Eleneki-Hugo, a member of UH’s last title team (1987). “It’s going to take a couple of years to get her system in place. It’s not going to happen overnight.
“Dave is legendary and those are big shoes, but I’m happy she is getting the chance. She’s proven herself nationally and internationally many times. I’m excited to see her do it again.”
