They celebrated the end of their final preseason practice by sharing a French vanilla whipped cream pie. And a lot of laughs.

Skye Shimabukuro’s reward for winning Michele Nagamine’s August Madness — a weeklong penalty kick tournament — was shoving said pie into the face of runner-up Krystal Pascua.

Then Nagamine, first-year coach of the University of Hawaii soccer team, saw exactly what she wanted. Shimabukuro decided to let Pascua return the favor.

“I thought it spoke volumes,” Nagamine said. “They’re really bonding well.”

THIS TEAM is picked by the coaches to finish seventh in the eight-team Western Athletic Conference. Maybe the Rainbow Wahine won’t be very good, but with Nagamine around it looks like they’ll have some fun regardless.

“Part of my job is to keep them loose,” she said on the eve of tonight’s opener against Washington State. “We are not a team to take ourselves too seriously.”

Players agree Nagamine is off to a good start in changing the program’s culture. UH went 3-14-3 overall and 1-5-2 in the WAC in 2010. Toward the end it was evident batteries were drained.

“The energy level is really high this year,” said veteran goalkeeper Kanani Taaca, who played on some of Nagamine’s strong high school (Kamehameha) and club (Leahi) teams. “It was a hard camp, but we feel like it got us ready.”

Nagamine isn’t expecting miracles from a team that lacks experience, depth and a go-to scorer. But she does insist that if the Wahine work and play hard together, good things will happen, including on the scoreboard.

“I’m a realistic optimist. In the first season we’re hoping to win a few games no one expects us to win. We’ve already improved since the spring,” she said. “We’re definitely aiming to get in the WAC tournament.”

Nagamine’s first task was to improve the defense, but she also wants to build a balanced team with well-rounded players. “On defense, we’ll start with the forwards. On offense we’ll start from the back.”

PIE-IN-THE-FACE was just one surprise Thursday. There was also something a lot of folks will consider pie-in-the-sky: The idea that a basketball player with no experience in soccer can help a college team. If it works, it will be an example of great out-of-the-box thinking.

Keisha Kanekoa, a four-year starter at guard on the Wahine basketball team, agreed to join the team Monday as a backup goalkeeper. Right now, there is no one behind Taaca; freshman Elke Zeuner is undergoing some tests and Nagamine hopes she’ll be cleared to play in two or three weeks.

“The rest of our team is a work in progress,” Nagamine said. “So why can’t our backup ’keeper be one?”

Former UH basketball player Ki‘i Spencer-Vasconcellos came up with the idea of recruiting Kanekoa, and the coach liked it.

“I’ve been to every Wahine basketball game, and I think she has the perfect mentality for something like this,” Nagamine said. “It’s an opportunity to compete and challenge herself in something new.”

In some ways, you can say that for the Wahine who have actually played soccer, too, as a new era for the program begins tonight — one that promises to be full of surprises and positive energy.