Wade has a shot to earn a national championship

On Sept. 1, 1995, a fiery young assistant helped the University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team to a season-opening victory.

"My first match as Dave Shoji’s assistant. Came back from 0-2 to beat Texas, and the Sheriff Center was rocking," Charlie Wade said. "From that moment on, all I wanted was to win a national championship for the people of Hawaii."

There were some opportunities for that in Wade’s 11 years with the Rainbow Wahine, few better than that first season when Hawaii won its first 31 matches.

Now, 20 years later, Wade might have another shot at that elusive national title. This time it’s as head coach of the UH men’s team.

The Rainbow Warriors host Long Beach State in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs Saturday. Prior to two losses at Brigham Young last week, UH had won 16 in a row and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a month.

Wade, 51, has clearly adapted and evolved.

In 2006, he left Hawaii to be the women’s head coach at Pacific. He returned to the islands as the UH men’s head coach in 2010.

"For Charlie it’s been a long road," Shoji said. "First he had to adjust from coaching women to coaching men at a high level. Sometimes that’s difficult."

There was also the adjustment from assistant to head coach. Some can’t do it. Wade said the years with Shoji helped prepare him for it.

"I was ready mentally and emotionally for the change in responsibility and perspective," he said.

What was the most important thing he learned from Shoji, who has coached the Wahine for 40 years and to four national championships?

"To be patient in putting out fires," Wade said. "You see what you think is a problem and you think you have to solve it immediately. That’s not always true, and Dave would let something work itself out if that was the best way to address it."

Said Shoji: "I think you have to assess the situation. There’s a lot of give and take. You have to allow the players the ability to think and react and play on their own — even if that might be different than your philosophy. We both found out you can’t just hammer away and make young people play a certain way. You really have to learn a lot about your players."

Echoing Shoji, Wade knows he can’t micromanage.

"We’re not calling every play, our game doesn’t really allow for that," he said. "The guys on the court have to be akamai in the moment."

When he watches the Warriors, Shoji said he sees signs of the first 17 years of Wade’s college coaching career.

"It’s just my observation, but I think that he’s taken some of the philosophies from the women’s game over to the men’s game," he said. "Most men’s teams all play the same way. An example is serving. (The Warriors) don’t just go back there and hit it as hard as they can every time. You want to force the issue, but not be reckless. Most men’s teams want to hit it as hard as they can. We’re way smarter than that."

Wade’s mantra regarding serving applies to the overall game as well: "Stay aggressive, but be smart."

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.