Dave Shoji has 1,108 victories and four national volleyball championships in four decades as coach of the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine. Any explanation from the 188 players he’s coached as to why his watch in Manoa has been so sweet comes back to a few basic facts.

Hawaii’s ability to sustain volleyball success for 40 years — in an NCAA world now dominated by a few exceptionally wealthy programs — all but begins and ends with Shoji, who became his sport’s winningest coach the second week of his 39th season. And what happens here is often very different than what goes on outside the planet’s most isolated land mass.

For starters, the Wahine simply look different. They are Rainbows of diversity, with roots in Hawaii’s melting pot and branches reaching out to the mainland, Europe and South America.

"One of the reasons we’ve been able to sustain our success is that we have great local players that want to stay home," Shoji says. "Half your recruiting is at home and we’ve been pretty successful keeping the best players here."

To prove his point, this year he has started players from Molokai, Hilo and Hawaii Kai, along with Southern California, Colorado and Florida.

His ability to blend those very different personalities, from dramatically different backgrounds, has led to success since the 1970s. The national championship team in 1979 was a disparate group that had little in common off the court but came together behind All-Americans Angie Andrade, Terry Malterre, Waynette Mitchell and Diane Sebastian to win Hawaii’s first team championship.

Shoji remains close with Malterre and Sebastian — now married to former UH men’s volleyball player Tom Pestolesi.

"He has been a great friend for over 30 years," says Diane Pestolesi, who always admired Shoji’s insistence that athletes have a life outside volleyball. "Dave is the most successful coach in the history of volleyball because most of all, he always keeps it in perspective.

"I’ll never forget a quote of his at a dinner after winning the AIAW national championship in 1979. He said, ‘It feels great, doesn’t it? Hold onto that feeling, because in your lives you will be faced with challenges and some really tough times. At those times, look back at what you have accomplished and remember, no one can ever take that away from you.’ "

Pestolesi traces Shoji’s legendary dedication to detail to his athletic roots. As a senior, he was Upland High School’s best athlete — over baseball Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. Shoji won a national volleyball championship in 1969 at UC Santa Barbara.

Six years later, he was a first-year, part-time coach at Hawaii, making $2,000. The Wahine won their first title in his fifth part-time season. They became the first to win consecutive NCAA championships in 1982 and ’83, then reloaded and ran the table again four years later.

There have been no more titles, but since the AVCA started its Top 25 poll in ’82, Hawaii has finished in the top 10 all but six years.

It is almost all in the details, his players say.

"Volleyball is a lot like a chess match for him," says Mahina (Eleneki) Hugo. "He studies his opponents and predicts their next move to give us the best possible preparation going into a game. Second is his attention to discipline …what I mean by this is respect."

Shoji is a stickler for being on time and accountable. Beyond that, discipline — to him — means being in the right inch of the court every moment of every rally. In practices, he corrects the angle of a defender’s ankle by a few degrees and runs drills until rotations are choreographed precisely.

"Knowing what defense we are in at that moment, while a certain individual across the net is hitting," Hugo offers as an example. "Within a rally, we might play four different defenses based on each opposing player. Pretty exciting stuff!"

Pretty tedious in practice, for sure, but it has paid off 1,108 times. Who is arguing?

Shoji has taken his unique blend of players and precision to 15 final fours. At nearly all those, Hawaii showed up with the smallest, most diverse bunch of volleyball "misfits" in the arena. The Wahine can probably count their "blue-chip" recruits on Shoji’s fingers and toes over the past 39 years. Even national players of the year Deitre Collins, Teee Williams, Angelica Ljungquist and Kim Willoughby came in under lots of radars.

Hawaii might not have the best "volleyball players," but it always has among the best trained. That hasn’t changed in nearly 40 years.

"He knows how to bring together athletes of various backgrounds, levels of skill and personalities to develop their individual strengths to create successful teams year after year," Pestolesi says. "Dave has never tried to control or micromanage athletes to make them fit his system. He allows the athletes to be individuals and is unsurpassed at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of his athletes and adapting his system to match the talent in the gym.

"Unlike some former athletes who coach, Dave has stayed successful because he is an amazing teacher. He is able to teach not only the top-tier athletes, but to maximize the potential of players who are willing to put in the work it takes to be successful."

Some personalities are tougher to teach than others. Veronica Lima came here from Brazil and had a huge impact, but only after Shoji found a way to maximize her blend of talent, experience and … well, let her explain it.

"I believe Dave is so successful because he knows exactly what to expect from each one of his players and assistants," she says. "Consequently, he knows how to use it for the good of the team. When I played at UH, for example, I was older and more experienced than my teammates. But I was a little bossy too.

"With the help of Charlie Wade, his assistant at the time, Dave found just the way to let me put my experience into work without giving too much room for my other nature. I think he actually enjoyed himself watching my attempts to boss him around on the court."

Former UH setter Jennifer (Carey) Dorr calls the rarity of almost every Wahine having Shoji as a coach the "Dave Experience." She came from Southern California and now is an assistant at Cal, but always feels a bond when she runs into another Wahine, "whether I know them well or not."

"Because we can all relate our experience back to Dave and have that in common," Dorr explains. "The feeling and spirit of ohana are what drew me to Hawaii even though, at the time, I did not know what ohana meant. Dave, his family, staff, and support staff made me feel so welcome and at home even though I was 2,000 miles from home."

It is a family the fans have embraced. They have come in record numbers. There was the stunning Blaisdell Center sellout in the early years, the 1,800 uncomfortable-to-the-rotting-rafters diehards in Klum Gym and, since the Stan Sheriff Center opened in 1994, the largest, most devoted and coveted crowds in the game.

Every college team wants to play here because no other program has an atmosphere close. It is like an NCAA tournament every night. The Wahine have led the volleyball world in attendance since the SSC popped up, averaging as many as 8,378 (1996) and fewer than 6,000 only once (2008) — only by a handful and despite having every home match televised live.

Shoji, whose budget was 25 percent that of Texas in a study a few years ago, is the chief operating officer of the NCAA’s only revenue-producing volleyball program. He attributes the huge fan base, in large part, to the fact the Wahine have won more than 85 percent of their matches since the program started in 1974, with coach Alan Kang.

But there is more to it here — much more to understand about the game in Hawaii, its fans and diverse players and precisely what Shoji has put together over the past four phenomenal decades. Each of his players knows it, has felt it. While they describe it in different terms, their memories are very similar, no matter where they come from.

Lima, from volleyball-mad Brazil, found the atmosphere much different than anywhere she had played, before or since.

"As for the Wahine, I can say that a great chunk of their success comes from the crowd," Lima said. "Unlike everywhere else in the world, in Hawaii the fans don’t support us because they think we are special or better than anyone else. They love us as family, as friends. So, if you’re cheered and pampered by family and friends, naturally, you’ll always do your best to see them happy. Winning is just a consequence."

It also has been truth for Shoji’s 39 now-record years.

"It is a well-deserved honor," 1981 All-American Nahaku Brown says of the record,"a monumental feat Dave will humbly deny and graciouslyaccept.

"He is agenuine, sincere, and caring man. The epitome of Mr. Aloha. He lives his life with aloha. Dave isa true Rainbow."

Today, he is also the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division I women’s volleyball. And he is ours.