Gene Krieger strengthens UH-Hilo volleyball’s local ties

Gene Krieger learned the hard way a large part of what had made Hawaii such rich repository of small college national championships in women’s volleyball during the 1980s and ’90s.

“The players from Hawaii,” Krieger said.

“We’d come over here to play UH-Hilo and Brigham Young-Hawaii or see them in the national tournament and we’d be roadkill,” said Krieger who coached at Cal Baptist, Cal Poly Pomona and other schools in a half-dozen visits. “And a lot of that was that their players were predominantly from Hawaii.”

In the 22 years between 1981 and 2002 the Vulcans, under Sharon Peterson, and Seasiders, coached by Wilfred Navalta, combined for a remarkable 15 national champions spread across NAIA and NCAA Division II levels. Add Hawaii Pacific and it was 18.

So, when Krieger saw a Hilo job that had endured five consecutive losing seasons open after the 2016 season, he did two things: He quickly applied for it and he vowed, if he got it, to make recruiting in-state players Job One.

When the Vulcans open their season Thursday in the inaugural First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge tournament, seven of their 15 players will be local. That’s up from one when Krieger looked at the roster he inherited prior to the 2017 season.

“The first thing I said when I got here was ‘Hawaii first,’ ” Krieger said. “I’m recruiting every player from Hawaii that I can. Not every player will come here, because some of them want to see the world and go to the mainland, but I’m recruiting our backyard, hard.”

Hilo’s roster this season includes players from Hawaii Island, Kauai and Oahu.

“We want the players in the state to know that they can play away from home and not have to cross an ocean to do it by playing here,” Krieger said.

Moreover, every member of his coaching staff, including former Rainbow Wahine Tai Manu-Olevao, has Hawaii ties.

“He’s brought a lot of energy and insight to the job,” athletic director Patrick Guillen told the UH Board of Regents. “He has seen that the program can compete on a high level.”

Krieger is not only an observer of history, he’s also put an emphasis on the teaching of it. The Hilo campus gym has had a mural telling the Vulcans storied volleyball history on its wall for 20 years. Long enough that it had become part of the scenery, easily taken for granted at times.

So, Krieger asked Peterson, a four-time NAIA national coach of the year, and other notables of the past depicted in the mural by Big Island artist Kathleen Kam, to return and share that history with his players. Navalta, too, has been a visitor at practices.

Krieger also returned the Vulcans to the island’s long-running Haili tournament for the first time in a decade. “The players gave up their spring break to play in it,” Krieger said. “They won (their division), that might have surprised some people.”

The Vulcans created their own tournament to open the season, the seven-team event that runs Thursday through Saturday with HPU, Chaminade and college teams from Canada and the mainland.

“I vividly remember what great volleyball was played here,” Krieger said. This time he’d like to be part of it rather than a victim.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.