Another Akagi-Bustin will arrive at college

Zoey Akagi-Bustin’s path to a golf scholarship at New Mexico next fall appears to have had four prominent elements, in no particular order: talent, a willingness to work, competitive genes and an intense dislike of running.

That last element is probably why the `Iolani senior will golf for the Lobos and not play tennis.

Zoey’s mom is Vanne Akagi-Bustin, Hawaii’s top-ranked women’s tennis player in the 1980s. Vanne won the 1982 state high school championship, leading Leilehua to its only team title.

She got a scholarship to Texas A&M and took the Aggies to a Top-20 ranking and their first NCAA tournament in 1986, playing No. 1 singles and doubles. She still holds the school record for most doubles victories in a season, with 42 in 1986.

Going from Wahiawa to College Station, Texas, was a surprisingly smooth transition, on the court and off. Akagi played No. 1 her last three years, and practically learned a new language.

"My experience at Texas A&M was great …," she says. "I had to learn how to speak better and not pidgin English because people in Texas had a hard time understanding me."

She got her degree in applied mathematics and played two years on the WTA Tour, where she was ranked as high as No. 300 in the world. She came home and worked as a programmer analyst before changing careers and becoming a math teacher at Leilehua, and tennis coach.

Zoey started playing tennis at 5 and was ranked No. 1 in 10-unders, placing fifth in the 2007 Little Mo West Sectionals in San Diego. About that time, she also started golfing with brother Zakry, eventually taking lessons from Casey Nakama.

By the time she was 12, golf was calling her name.

"Although I did well when I was younger in tennis," Zoey recalls "I really didn’t like the amount that I had to run so I chose golf.

"Golf was fun, and I didn’t have to run. Yes, I had to walk, but I got to push a cart with my clubs on it."

She shares her mother’s exceptional will to win and clearly has inherited her athleticism. But there, the similarities end. While Vanne was introspective and focused, Zoey is outgoing and, "according to my mom, very sassy."

Their results have been similar at this stage. Zoey was state runner-up as a sophomore and her `Iolani teams have two seconds and a third so far. She was the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association’s Player of the Year in the oldest division in 2013 and has played on the Asia Pacific Junior Cup, Mary Cave Cup and Junior America’s Cup teams. Last year, she and John Daly won the Acura Hawaii Pro Skills Challenge.

Like her mom, who started competing on the mainland at 12, Zoey has also traveled extensively beyond team events. A&M first saw Vanne at the Seventeen Magazine tennis tournament in California some 30 years ago. Zoey played Junior Worlds and three Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championships on the mainland, which is where New Mexico coach Jill Trujillo found her.

"I chose New Mexico because it is a lot more laid back then a lot of other places in the mainland, the people there felt more like people in Hawaii," Zoey says. "I really liked Coach Jill from UNM. She seemed to really care about her players not only developing on the golf course, but academically as well. And of course, it also really helped that the assistant coach, Britney Choy, is from Wahiawa and they offered me a full scholarship."

She will go to Albuquerque with much the same background as her mom, along with a few updates.

Vanne’s parents would drive her to the dry spots on the island when it was too rainy to practice in Wahiawa. She still remembers them constantly telling her to never give up and that "winning is great, but learning from your losses is invaluable."

Zoey has been going to fitness training the last four years and also works with a sports psychologist. She takes to heart her mother’s mantra — "practice makes permanent" — and never questions her advice about mental toughness. They might not play the same game, but they share a huge athletic bond.

Mom doesn’t talk much about her tennis, but maybe she doesn’t have to.

"I assume she was good because she had a full ride to Texas A&M," Zoey says, "and there are hundreds of trophies in our house and grandma’s house."