University of Hawaii women’s basketball team embraces extended road trip

It was a whirlwind that landed the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team in California for 12 days.

“It’s the world of COVID, right?’ head coach Laura Beeman said. “We’ve learned to roll with the punches, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

The Rainbow Wahine will play road games against Cal Poly today and Saturday, stay on the Central Coast through Thursday, then head to UC Santa Barbara for two more Big West games to complete the extended trip.

The sequence began a week ago, when UH lost the first of two road games against UC Irvine. The next morning, there were concerns about a potential coronavirus-related situation. Although the situation did not materialize, last Saturday’s rematch was canceled. The Wahine then returned to Honolulu on Sunday.

Soon after, it was learned this weekend’s games against UC San Diego would be canceled. A replacement option was for the Wahine to play Cal Poly on the road. But that would mean staying in California after the game, rather than returning to UH, ahead of the UC Santa Barbara series.

Beeman said she received support from the administration and assurances from the medical staff that adhering to protocols would make the four-game trip safe for her team. She also was told that it made fiscal sense to remain on the mainland between series.

“Budget is everything this year,” Beeman said. “We don’t want to do anything that’s irresponsible. So once you put the safety protocols in place and make sure everybody’s safe, you’ve got to look at the money. I completely understand that. Once we had a good conversation and felt we knew what direction things were moving … ‘full speed ahead.’ We were going to play four games on the road.”

Beeman said she was heartened that her players unanimously accepted the new plan. “This group is going to go out and play, whoever we play, and that’s what I love about them,” Beeman said. “The outcome is the outcome. They’re all really excited to get on the road and do this four-game road trip.”

The two games against Cal Poly will make up for the Dec. 27-28 series between the teams that was canceled because of COVID-related situations involving the Mustangs’ program. “Obviously, we were disappointed when we didn’t get to play them (in December),” said forward Amy Atwell, noting that some of that preparation will be useful this weekend.

Five of the Wahine’s Big West games were canceled or postponed.

“Any game we can get,” Atwell said, “we want to play. We’re just hungry to play.”