A member of the house Committee on Tourism asked athletic director David Matlin how much of a priority Senate Bill 83 was for the University of Hawaii.

Matlin’s answer Wednesday was apparent when Dave Shoji sat down to testify.

Shoji, you see, is the heaviest hitter on campus, someone summoned for the really big occasions.

His accumulated gravitas from 40-plus years as the women’s volleyball coach packs the same punch as the best Rainbow Wahine outside hitters.

Need to make a particular point or gain some leverage, Shoji is your guy. And has been for a series of UH athletic officials.

The controversial bill, which would provide UH athletic teams with $3 million in travel assistance taken from the tourism special fund, moved on by a 7-0 vote.

An opponent of the measure acknowledged afterward, “bringing in Shoji wasn’t fair.”

In 2010, when UH faced an uphill battle in winning Board of Regents approval to impose a mandatory $50-a-semester athletic fee on students after years of failing, they called on one coach to win the day.

That the regents’ meeting that day was held in the Stan Sheriff Center assured passage since who was going to beat Shoji in the building whose rafters contained four national titles won by his teams?

UH also knows the perils of having Shoji suit up for the other side. When the Hawaii Government Employees Association last month wanted to kill a bill that sought to remove coaches from a half century of union representation, they had one coach provide testimony to the house Committee on Higher Education, Shoji.

Never mind that Matlin, Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman and a whole slew of UH officialdom was in favor of the bill, the guy with a 1,179-198-1 record outweighed them all. End of bill.

Name another coach in the state who could openly oppose his bosses.

UH Regent Jeff Portnoy later lamented to the board, “We were up against some powerful forces.” Many took that to mean Shoji and the state’s largest union — in that order.

As he sat down in front of the mic Wednesday Shoji said, “I’m more nervous than I was for the Penn State match (in the NCAA Tournament).”

“We’re in sudden death,” committee chairman Tom Brower prodded.

With that, Shoji put his match face on, reeling off numbers scribbled on a well-folded piece of paper. “My estimate is about 20,000 people come to watch UH athletics. They do stay in hotel rooms, OK,” he said, turning to make sure that a hotel official in opposition who preceded him did not miss the point. “They do rent cars.”

Then Shoji went for aloha ball. “The Pro Bowl is kind of (a) sore subject for me,” he said. “The (NFL) is a billion-dollar industry (and) we pay them $5 million to bring the game in. They bring in 20,000 people who spend x-amount of dollars that we get x-amount of tax dollars for. You know, that is a wash. We (UH) bring in 20,000 people (too). They get $5 million and we get nothing. So, I would just like you guys to look at that.”

You got the feeling they would.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.