Forty years of practices, matches and recruiting.

Forty years of countless memorable moments, players and fans.

Forty years of winning.

For his new book, "Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team," University of Hawaii women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji certainly had a lot of ground to cover. But with the help of recently retired Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser sports reporter Ann Miller, the legendary coach was able to get all of it on the page.

"When you go back 30, 40 years, it wasn’t easy to remember a lot of the details because, obviously, memories fade, sometimes they’re not that vivid," laughed Shoji, who is nearing completion of his 40th season coaching the Wahine. "I remember more of the people and individuals rather than a lot of the games."

Who could blame him? Coming into this milestone season, Shoji had 1,318 UH matches under his belt, 1,128 of them wins, making him the most successful coach in Division I women’s volleyball history.

In the book, Shoji recaps some of those amazing matches, particularly the campaigns to the Wahine’s four national championships. Three chapters are dedicated to the 1979, ’82, ’83 and ’87 teams that won it all.

The coach gets some help reliving those days. Throughout the championship chapters, Miller weaves in additional details from TV and newspaper interviews with players at the time. The memories include Lisa Strand’s bittersweet reaction to the Wahine’s 1983 title:

"I went back to my room after and, personally, I was devastated," said the former player, now Strand-Ma‘a, in an interview from November 2008. Her sadness was due to the realization that the special team had just played its last match together.

Part autobiography, part history lesson, "Wahine Volleyball" illustrates how the UH program grew to become a sports and cultural icon in Hawaii — from the days when 1,500 fans would pack sweltering Klum Gym to recent seasons when crowds of to 10,500 filled the Stan Sheriff Center.

What’s apparent in the book, published by the University of Hawai‘i Press, is that Shoji enjoys talking about people: his former players, coaches (both his own assistants and his counterparts at other schools), friends and family. Among the book’s 120 photos are shots of Shoji with wife Mary, daughter Cobey and sons Kawika and Erik, who now play with the U.S. men’s volleyball squad.

The idea for the book bounced around for years, until Shoji finally sat down with Miller for 17 interview sessions starting in February. The sportswriter had just retired after a 34-year career covering the Wahine.

"I just felt that we needed to chronicle this history behind the program before it just went away, for me anyway," said Shoji, who turns 68 next month. "Everything is still pretty current; I just didn’t want to wait any longer to try to put this all together."

It was a quick turnaround, with writing and editing finished up by late summer. An early title idea for the book was "Aloha Ball," a uniquely local term to describe the potential final point of a match.

"But that didn’t Google well," Miller said.

The book not only celebrates the program, but also the Wahine fan base, whose dedication, game knowledge and sheer number are unique in the country. For those followers there are yearly statistics, player rosters and an index to make "Wahine Volleyball" an essential reference.

"(Shoji’s) successes are pretty phenomenal, but what makes it so different is the following they have," Miller said of the program. "People here, it’s such a special thing for them. I’m not sure people on the mainland are really going to get it like we get it. (The book) is really for Hawaii."

Former players are well represented in "Wahine Volleyball." Every chapter includes new interviews Miller conducted with past Wahine and others related to the program. They include Strand-Ma‘a, Tita Ahuna, Kanoe Kama­na‘o Ka‘ai­hue and Teee Williams Slacanin.

"I think the longer the players are out of the program, the more they realize how fortunate they were to have Dave as their coach," Miller said. "I don’t think they realize that until much, much later."

One player who came to that realization early was Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, who is now Shoji’s assistant coach. She recalled an argument with Shoji during her senior season. In the end the future Olympian apologized to her coach.

"I learned to truly respect what coaches do," she told Miller. "I’ve used that all my years, so thank you, Dave, for that!"

The book is filled with other behind-the-scenes insights. Shoji starts off one story with the intriguing sentence, "We almost lost Maja Gustin in El Paso once," referring to the Slovenian who played for the Wahine for four seasons starting in 2000.

The tale is short but amusing in hindsight, and fans will surely appreciate it.

So just how did the team almost lose the imposing 6-foot-3 middle blocker? Read "Chapter 15: On the Road, Again and Again" to find out.