Only by trying something new can it eventually become familiar, maybe even old school.

When it came to the game of soccer — first playing it, then coaching it — Kathy Carey had her doubts. It was a fledgling exercise with little history in Hawaii, and when she was 15, there were no youth leagues of which to speak.

With some prodding, a friend convinced the surfing-minded Carey to take a chance on an adult league at Kapiolani Park. It was intimating; didn’t these people have jobs? Aren’t they married with kids of their own? But once she took off running in the field, that was it. She was sold, and the seed of one of the University of Hawaii soccer team’s strongest roots was planted.

"I still remember that first practice, running down the field and just that instant love, instant addiction to the sport," she said.

"Don’t be afraid to try things you’re not even sure you’re going to like. You never know until you get into it. Sometimes those little things, decisions, have a huge impact in the direction your life will take."

When UH starts the 2013 season against UNC-Greensboro at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium at 7 p.m. today, so begins the program’s 20th year as a varsity sport.

Carey has been there as an assistant coach every step of the way, from its humble beginnings as a club team playing in a local women’s league, through the Natasha Kai years, and later the Rainbow Wahine’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2007.

Jack Sullivan, an authority on local soccer, was a member of the advisory committee that recommended to UH that women’s soccer become a varsity sport in 1994. He’s known Carey for 39 years.

"Her arms have covered and nurtured all of those girls who have gone through the program," Sullivan said. "So she’s more than a big sister; she’s a mother. I would say she is the mother of the program."

Carey is the longest-tenured assistant coach among all UH sports. For the majority of that time, she’s been a volunteer, including the past three years on Michele Nagamine’s staff. And she wouldn’t have it any other way; it frees her to spend time with for her four children and her husband, David, and help his business with Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.

It was a twist of fate that led her down the coaching path, too. In 1982, Punahou soccer coach Bob Clague called Carey — fresh out of graduate school at Santa Clara, where she played club — on three separate occasions to beg her to coach his JV girls. She wound up doing it for 12 years.

"I figured I’ll do the season, get him off my back, and then I’m done with this," Carey said with a laugh. "And here I am, it’s become something I’ve loved. It’s become a career, it’s affected so much of my life in a very, very positive way."

She takes pride in being a backup set of eyes and ears in practices and games, using her experience to pick up on subtle things while others’ attention is focused elsewhere. She also handles much of the team’s behind-the-scenes work, such as travel planning.

It’s made her indispensable. Even the program’s only change of head coaches, from Pinsoom Tenzing to Nagamine in 2011, could not budge her.

"She always laughs when I say she’s the MVP," Nagamine said. "But I really mean that. I think that, Coach Kat, not only is she one of my oldest and dearest friends, but she was the first person that I called when I got hired at UH. I knew that if we wanted to continue that success that the program had experienced early on, we needed a true, proven winner like Kathy Carey."

Carey, 56, has seen every facet of her life shaped by the game. She helped establish female teams at Punahou, and later at Stanford — there were only the beginnings of boys and men’s teams at the time, and she played on both.

All these years later, she still gets that rush taking the field. Carey recently competed in the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy — an Olympics-like competition for older competitors every four years — and won gold with Leahi in the Over-50 division. She coached another team, Holomua, to the women’s Over-55 championship.

Today, the state of youth soccer in Hawaii is strong. For any given UH game at Waipio, there are hundreds of children playing and watching around the sidelines. This season, there are 12 local players on UH’s roster of 27.

"I think you always have to be grateful to the people that came before you," Carey said. "Those early club players (1992-93). The early varsity players, for what they did for the program. Because that’s all a foundation that built on the next level. That created what we have today."