Wahine add 6-5 middle blocker

The recruiting game is often one of chance, of luck, of timing. And also of scholarship availability.

Sometimes the stars align to make it work months after it appeared it wouldn’t.

Such is the case with Natasha Burns.

The 6-foot-5 middle blocker from Hamilton, Ontario, is a late addition to the Hawaii women’s volleyball recruiting class as a freshman this fall. Burns, who originally signed with West Virginia, will fill the scholarship that opened after it was decided that Megan Huff would be on basketball scholarship when playing both sports next school year.

Burns used Twitter to announce that she would be a Rainbow Wahine and told the Star-Advertiser, "To say it was exciting would be an understatement. I tried to keep it on the down-low until I knew 100 percent that everything was going to work out.

"I used to dream about going to a school with a volleyball program as strong as UH’s. It seems like a dream. I can’t wait to get onto the campus, meet my new teammates and coaches. My family is very excited for me. My mother, whom I’m very close with, is sad about the distance, but she’s very proud of me and supports my decision 100 percent. Not surprisingly all my family members want to visit."

Burns had been on Hawaii’s recruiting radar but was told there was no scholarship for 2015. She signed with West Virginia in November, but when coach Jill Kramer resigned in late December to take a job at TCU, Burns requested a release from the Mountaineers.

Former Hilo High All-State selection and UCLA All-American Reed Sunahara, hired by West Virginia in February, gave Burns her release in March. Her recruiting coordinator, Kevin Horne, contacted Hawaii — "Always what I considered my top pick for a university," Burns said.

(Hawaii coach Dave Shoji cannot discuss the situation until Burns is enrolled at UH).

Burns said she was attracted to the Rainbow Wahine program because of its success, the coaching staff and the marine biology program, her choice of major. Besides volleyball, which she "took up almost on a a whim" in eighth grade, she played basketball for three seasons in high school.

"I decided to stop (basketball) in grade 12 because of the extra stress it put on my body and that it overlapped with my volleyball," Burns said. "As to why I chose volleyball, I would say it chose me. It started a little spontaneous — I decided to try out about an hour before tryouts started — and I ended up going with it."

She has represented Canada at the International Children’s Games and helped her club to an 11th-place finish at the Canadian Nationals. Burns will be the second Canadian on the Rainbow Wahine roster, joining current freshman middle Emily Maglio.

It will be an adjustment for Burns and her family, who will be some 4,600 miles away.

"The choices Natasha has made in her life to this point have always been the right ones, so her choice to attend UH was easy," Gerri Burns said of her daughter. "When she started the recruitment process only one short year ago, UH was top of her list. It’s a dream come true for her and, as her parents, any dream Natasha decides to pursue we are of course 100 percent going to be behind her.

"I know she will go on to be an exceptional student-athlete for UH and we couldn’t be happier for her that she chose UH to be her home away from home."