One of the most influential players in Hawaii women’s volleyball history will be leaving the program at the end of the month.
Assistant coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, a two-time first-team All-American and three-time Olympian, said Tuesday that she and her family will be moving to Las Vegas due to her husband’s Army re-assignment.
“It’s a happy sad moment,” Ah Mow-Santos said after Hawaii’s scrimmage against Nittaidai of Japan. “It’s happy because it’s something new. It’s sad because I will miss everyone here.”
Ah Mow-Santos, 40, returned to her alma mater as an assistant in 2011, following long careers professionally and with the U.S. national team. The 1993 McKinley High graduate played for Hawaii from 1993-1996 and ranks third in the UH record book in career assists (4,313) and fourth in assists per set (11.23).
Ah Mow-Santos was the starting setter for the U.S. in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, earning a silver medal in ’08. In her final two seasons with the Wahine, Hawaii went a combined 66-4, losing to Stanford in the 1996 NCAA title match.
“It’s a big loss for us,” Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. “We knew it would happen eventually, we just didn’t know when.”
Shoji said he was unsure of when the job vacancy would be posted.
Ah Mow-Santos has been married to husband Nobel Santos since 2002. The couple has two children, son Jordan and daughter Jream.
Asked what impact she has had on the program, Ah Mow-Santos said: “I talk to the girls and hopefully they learned something, whether it was on the court or off the court. As long as they learned one thing from me, I’m good.”
Ah Mow-Santos was inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor in 2005 and the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
