One of these days volleyball coach Dave Shoji is going to wander out to the golf course and not come back to the practice gym at the University of Hawaii.

It won’t be today, when the Rainbow Wahine open their 37th fall camp in the tenure of the only full-time head coach the program has known.

But be assured the day is approaching and the 65-year old Shoji acknowledges it. If not necessarily because of the wear and tear of the years, which he has handled remarkably well in a Hall of Fame career, then because of the question he fields daily about how much longer he will coach.

Not even counting media types, Shoji said in an email that he gets The Question, “every day, literally!”

His standard answer is: “(I) can’t put any timetable on this now. Could be any number. But I won’t be a JoePa.”

Good thing, too, because he’d need plenty more years to match 84-year-old Joe Paterno, who is starting his 46th season as Penn State’s football coach.

Some would like Shoji, who has 1,045 victories, to stay through 2015, giving him 40 years on the job and a chance to pass UCLA’s Andy Banachowski (1,106) and hold off Penn State’s Russ Rose (1,033) as the winningest women’s coach.

Shoji says, “I thank God every day for blessing my life. And I live day to day now.”

After four national titles, 35 national tournament appearances and a program that draws crowds like no other in the sport, few here are in any hurry to see Shoji hit the links full-time. But with each season, and as the other elder statesmen at other schools retire, the question looms larger.

Five years ago Shoji said his departure was timed to come after his youngest son, Erik, was out of college. Erik, an All-America libero for Stanford, will be a senior this season. Which might have been why the current contract, signed in 2008, takes him to June 30, 2013.

And, more revealing, why, in lieu of some lucrative bonus provisions, he reportedly sought a flat salary ($179,000) that would better position him for high-three retirement purposes. The salary, nearly $36,000 above the listed maximum for the position, quickly got the required upper campus approval.

But that date, wisely, is only as firm as Shoji chooses to make it. Athletic director Jim Donovan said he has told Shoji, “ ‘Coach, as far as I’m concerned, you can stay as long as you want.’ ”

Part of Shoji’s decision may involve positioning a successor. Shoji would like a voice in choosing one but understands, “I’m not sure they’ll ask me. Administrators like to make their own decisions.”

Shoji won’t say who his choice would be — “people come to mind all the time” — but speculation is that his current associate coach, Scott Wong, tops that list. Shoji pushed for Wong to get the men’s head coaching job two years ago and this week had him named the head coach of UH’s debuting sand volleyball team.

Men’s coach Charlie Wade, a former Shoji top assistant; Mike Sealy, a former assistant now head coach at UCLA; Cincinnati’s Reed Sunahara and former Wahine All-American Deitre Collins would likely be among the contenders.

To be sure, Shoji would like another swing at a fifth national championship before he hangs up his whistle. The best indication of how Shoji wants to close out an iconic career might be in what he said he tells potential candidates: “If you want my job, don’t hold your breath.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com.