Berg joins Wahine volleyball as assistant

Making the Olympic team isn’t an everyday occurrence. And to make it three times? It’s a rarity deserving of its own category.

So figure the odds that a three-time Olympic setter from Honolulu is replacing a three-time Olympic setter from Honolulu as an assistant coach for the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team.

It takes the phrase “equivalency hire” to another level, with the addition of Lindsey Berg to the staff for the upcoming season.

Berg takes over for Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, who resigned in March following her husband’s military reassignment to Nevada. The two played in two Olympics together, 2004 and 2008, with the U.S. taking the silver medal in the latter in Beijing, Ah Mow-Santos’ last of three Games.

The 34-year-old Berg also was the starting setter in 2012, when the U.S. repeated as silver medalists in London.

“It’s a very special opportunity, one that I couldn’t pass up,” Berg said in a telephone call from Los Angeles, where she currently resides. “I’m happy to come home. I love Hawaii and I’m looking forward to giving back, to share my experience with the young women and hopefully help them and the team get better.

“I obviously have big shoes to fill, just as I did when backing up Robyn then replacing Robyn on the national team. I think it says something about Hawaii, the love of volleyball and the mentality that there were two Olympic setters from Hawaii on the women’s team and now two Olympic setters from Hawaii on the men’s team.”

On Tuesday, three players from Hawaii were named to the U.S. men’s roster for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in setters Micah Christenson (Kamehameha) and Kawika Shoji (‘Iolani) as well libero Erik Shoji (Punahou). The Shoji brothers are sons of Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji.

The connection between the Berg and Shoji families goes back to the 1960s, when Berg’s father Dennis coached Dave Shoji during an All-American setting career at UC Santa Barbara. One of Lindsay Berg’s first club coaches was Shoji at Asics Rainbows.

“Lindsey will be a huge addition to the Rainbow Wahine coaching staff,” Shoji said. “I’ve known her since she was a small child and I know she will bring her competitiveness and toughness to our team.”

Also being named to the staff officially was former Rainbow Warrior All-American Tom Pestolesi, who played for Shoji in the 1980s when he coached both the women’s and men’s teams.

Pestolesi will be a volunteer assistant while on sabbatical from his coaching and teaching duties at Irvine Valley (Calif.) College.

Berg also is taking somewhat of a leave from her business ventures in Los Angeles, including Napela X, a multi-pronged sports lifestyle business that offers youth clinics, motivational speakers and fashion. She will arrive in Honolulu on July 30, with her new job beginning Aug. 1.

The position is only through Dec. 31 and “then we’ll talk,” Berg said. “I’m leaving a lot (in Los Angeles) but this is a special opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”