It’s too bad for Hawaii the college sports world doesn’t revolve around women’s volleyball instead of football and men’s basketball.
The University of Hawaii would be doing fine. Its flagship Rainbow Wahine program that includes endowed-scholarship athletes, nation-leading attendance and an .857 all-time winning percentage (.900 the past five years) would have UH among the elite college athletic programs in the nation.
Top ten year-after-year, or close enough to it.
If volleyball and football traded places in their national mass popularity and ability to generate TV and other sponsorship money, the rest of the sports at Manoa could be beefed up. There would be no deficit. Volleyball could build a stadium for football.
Why do you think baseball and the women’s sports are so good in the SEC? Football money, in most cases.
Reality, though, dictates that UH must settle for a relatively modest annual profit from its best sports team. But these days, anything close to financial self-sufficiency coupled with winning deserves a parade through Waikiki.
And coach Dave Shoji, when he finally does retire, will surely get one.
Yes, people can — and do — complain that the Wahine last won it all in 1987.
But let’s put this in the proper perspective: When was the last time another revenue-producing sport produced a national championship at Manoa (at least one that was not later taken away)?
The answer is never. All four are courtesy of women’s volleyball.
Zero is also the answer if you’re asking how many losing seasons Wahine volleyball has suffered in its 40 years of existence as an intercollegiate sport, the last 39 of them under Shoji.
Even now, as UH athletics in general wallows in an ominous pit of despair, the Wahine remain a steady beacon of consistent success and hope.
Volleyball’s first practice isn’t until Aug. 10 and the first match at the Stan Sheriff Center is Aug. 29. But season-ticket sales have already eclipsed the 3,720 of last year. At end of business Friday, 3,733 packages had been purchased, associate athletic director John McNamara said.
The Wahine come off a 25-5 campaign that ended with a thud of a second-round NCAA loss to BYU and are probably a bit young to contend for a final-four appearance this season.
The upsurge in sales could be due to this perhaps being the final season for the winningest coach in Division I women’s volleyball history.
And, are some fans switching from football to volleyball?
Shoji thinks it could be something else, which would be great for the Wahine program’s future.
"Frankly it surprised me a little when I heard a couple weeks ago we were close to the level of last year’s sales. It is gratifying and we still have a month to go," Shoji said. "We had 500 kids who came to summer camp this year. The volleyball community has been great. This community loves volleyball, the kids love volleyball. New kids coming up, that has something to do with the season tickets. The community out there is on fire for volleyball."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.
