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Barely two weeks into the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team’s workouts, head coach Laura Beeman has already found something to enthusiastically celebrate.
“I’m more excited (now) than I have been in a long time because our roster is finally going to all be here,” Beeman said.
No easy feat in the pandemic era and tightened immigration controls when the last two players are each traveling more than 9,000 miles to get here.
Center Alicja Falkowska arrived late Thursday night from Lomianki, Poland, and guard Daryna Bachkarova has reached New York from Minsk, Belarus, Beeman said. Both are junior college transfers who signed with UH in April.
Both go into quarantine upon arrival and, pending medical clearance, hope to be ready when classes begin Aug. 24, Beeman said.
Another foreign player, center Channel Noah of France, remained in the U.S. and is completing quarantine procedures this week. They are the last of the eight newcomers — including five freshmen — joining the 14-member Rainbow Wahine squad. A lone remaining scholarship is being held open in case of a mid-year transfer.
Wednesday was a red letter day of sorts for the Rainbow Wahine. “We did very little shooting or layups until then,” Beeman said of the modified routines.
“We wanted to get their heart and lungs acclimated to make sure we had no issues,” Beeman said. “We took this very slowly as an acclimation process with no contact whatsoever. We have a very strict sanitizing policy where if you touched a ball it was your ball for the entire day. You had to clean it before any circuit or drill.”
In addition, Beeman said, all workouts are conducted with masks on throughout. “Wearing a mask, is hard enough when you are a coach talking, but they were able to do it while working out. That’s how badly they wanted to be on that court and practicing.”
Meanwhile, Beeman said, they are waiting to see if they will have a season to play and, if so, when it might start. “We just want to be prepared and to move forward in our preparation,” she said.
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