Raven Howser and Kahala Schneider took a significant step forward in their academic and athletic journeys on Tuesday.

Now they just have to get used to moving backward.

The La Pietra classmates signed national letters of intent in a ceremony on the Diamond Head campus, converting their prowess in paddling into college scholarships in a sport not offered in Hawaii high schools.

Completing a process that blended initiative and ingenuity with a healthy dose of persistence, Howser signed to compete in crew at Old Dominion, while Schneider committed to join the rowing program at Tennessee.

"It’s going to be a fun experience," Howser said. "I’m excited, scared, but I’m ready for it."

The Pac-Five and Kamehameha Canoe Club teammates first drew the attention of college coaches to their outrigger canoe paddling exploits and their potential convinced multiple schools to extend scholarship offers, even though they’d never competed in rowing.

Both expressed optimism that colleges will continue to look at the state as a recruiting ground after coaches from Sacramento State, Tennessee and Texas flew to Hawaii over the summer on scouting trips, and that other paddlers might consider rowing as a scholarship opportunity.

"I’ve been paddling since I was 12 years old. I need to be in the water," said Schneider, who will have 90 percent of her tuition covered by the scholarship. "So I was thinking, what can I do to be in the water in college because I wanted to go away and have new experiences."

Howser and Schneider will also take part in a signing event hosted by the Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance this morning. While other local graduates have competed in crew in college, PIAA founder Doris Sullivan said they will be the first signees in the sport to participate since the organization began holding the signing ceremonies four years ago.

The duo paddled together since their freshman year and were members of Pac-Five’s 2010 state champion crew as sophomores. Schneider won the ILH 2,000-meter kayaking championship last season and together they helped Kamehameha Canoe Club capture the Girls 16 title at the Na Ohana O Na Hui Wa‘a championships last summer.

Howser said coordinating strokes with five teammates in an outrigger canoe bears similarity to working in an eight-person (rowing) crew. Along with racing backward (in crew, athletes’ backs face the direction they’re going), they’ll also have to adjust to using the power in their legs instead of upper body to pull the oars through the water.

Her college search began in the spring with a list of 88 schools that offered what she was looking for in academics and athletics. She then sent out introduction letters and links to YouTube videos to update the coaches on her progress through the high school and regatta seasons.

"Some of my first phone calls I was incredibly nervous," Howser said. "I’ve definitely learned how to speak better on the phone."

She whittled her list to five and took all of her campus visits in a 10-day whirlwind in September — including stops at Duquesne, Northeastern, Rhode Island and Washington State — before deciding on Old Dominion.

As recently as late summer, Schneider’s plan was to stay home for college due to the expense of going away. But she worked with the CSA PrepStar recruiting service to get her resume out to colleges and received a scholarship offer from Tennessee at the HCRA state paddling championships on Maui in August.

Other offers rolled in and she was also considering Oregon State late Monday night, but ultimately decided on signing with Tennessee.

"I knew I would get something out of rowing," said Schneider, wearing a puakenikeni lei strikingly close to the Volunteers’ orange, "but I never knew it would be this good."

SIGNING DAY

NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT

» Student-athletes can sign a national letter of intent during the early signing period, Nov. 9-16 this year. The regular signing period starts April 11.
» Football, field hockey, soccer, track and field, cross country and men’s water polo do not have an early signing period and student-athletes can commit beginning Feb. 1.
» A signed agreement requires the student-athlete to attend the institution full-time for one academic year, while the institution agrees to provide athletics financial aid for the same period.
Source: NCAA website