There are any number of ways to measure Dave Shoji’s seismic impact on University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball.

Victories, conference titles, national championships, attendance, former players who became successful in coaching and in life, you name it. They are many and remarkable.

But one testament to his legacy will be the number and the caliber of people who someday — and may it be a ways off — stand in line to be considered for his successor.

"Successor" is the key term here because it would be an injustice to suggest anybody could be his replacement. It would be unfair to all Shoji has accomplished and to the person who inherits the considerable task of carrying on after him.

Who that person will be remains to be seen, of course. But we can tell you with certainty who it will not be.

It will not be somebody who is 28 years old and has never been a college head coach before. And it isn’t going to be somebody who just got turned down for a high school coaching job.

Two tags that, in fact, applied to Shoji when he took the largely unknown UH job in 1975.

Back then, Shoji pursued a UH position that had seen two head coaches in less than 18 months. Alan Kang coached UH in its inaugural season (1974) of the sport and Chris McLachlin was a brief interim coach.

It was more of a hot potato than a hot job back then, one that certainly didn’t portend national success or the long-term career with 1,108 victories and 39 years that Shoji has amazingly made of it.

Shoji had been a varsity assistant and junior varsity head coach of high school basketball and volleyball teams, including stops at Kalani and Punahou, while pursuing a master’s degree.

Punahou was looking for a boys volleyball head coach but wanted someone who would also serve on the faculty there, a commitment Shoji wasn’t ready to make.

At the time, he mentioned to Punahou administrators, he was also looking into UH, which was talking about developing its fledgling women’s program.

Those were the early days of the landmark legislation known as Title IX, the 1972 equity in education act, and UH had begun to target Wahine volleyball for growth. Nothing grand at the time, you understand, since Shoji would be paid $18,000 and double up as an academic adviser, sweep the floors at antiquated Klum Gym, roll out the bleachers and tether the volleyball nets of the day to wall hooks.

Nothing that promised his future place in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame or a six-figure paycheck.

And the whole UH package was still less than the Punahou combination.

Indeed, Shoji tells a story about a conversation he had with another passenger on a flight he took early in his UH coaching career. After exchanging pleasantries, the man asked Shoji what he did for a living. When Shoji told him he coached women’s volleyball on the college level the man waited. And waited. "I think he thought I was going to say and … something else," Shoji recalled.

But through the dint of hard work and imagination, Shoji made the Rainbow Wahine name synonymous with enduring excellence. He turned UH into a marquee destination for talented players and transformed Klum and the Stan Sheriff Center into a mecca for quality volleyball and entertainment.

Along the way he made it a job worth chasing.

Be assured, when the time comes, plenty of people will.

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