I’ve been a page designer for decades now, but my previous life in sports was as a writer.

When asked what I missed the most about not being out on the field, I say it’s the people — the coaches, officials and the players, especially the young impressionable athletes.

There’s a purity about young athletes before they hit stardom, feel entitled or a receive a big paycheck if that’s how far their talents take them.

So it is refreshing to watch, read about and track former Hawaii high school athletes reaching the pinnacle of collegiate athletics — the NCAA championship.

During the spring season — which ended Wednesday with Mississippi State winning the College World Series — Hawaii’s own fab four played pivotal roles in helping their teams win an NCAA title or reach the title game.

>> In late April, Maryknoll’s Jhenna Gabriel was the starting setter for Texas, which advanced to the title game before falling to Kentucky in the women’s volleyball championship

>> In May, King Kekaulike’s Colton Cowell helped Hawaii volleyball beat BYU and make history by becoming the first UH men’s team to win an undisputed NCAA title.

>> Later that month, Kaiser’s Kaile Halvorsen played big minutes in helping Santa Clara outlast Florida State in penalty kicks to capture the College Cup in women’s soccer.

>> In June, Campbell’s Jocelyn Alo and her immense power lifted Oklahoma to two straight victories over Florida State and the NCAA crown in softball.

(Aiea’s Kobe Kato had a chance to make it a fab five but the starting second baseman for Arizona and his Wildcats were eliminated in the CWS. Kato, though, played well.)

I’ll focus on the first and last student-athlete achievers — Gabriel and Alo — in this column. In my next column in a few weeks I’ll concentrate on Cowell and Halvorsen.

Jocelyn Alo

Alo’s seminal moment against the Seminoles came with the Sooners facing elimination.

Down 2-1 with a runner on and Oklahoma down to its final six outs, the right-hand hitting Alo took a low, outside pitch and launched it to right-center for a homer. TV analysts marveled at her power, saying the pitch wasn’t a mistake and that Alo hit a good pitch. It ignited a four-run inning en route to a 6-2 victory. The next day, she provided instant impetus with a homer in the first inning in a title-clinching 5-1 win.

“It was fun,” said Alo, who is a member of the Hawaii High School Hall of Honor. “It was just a really good experience. I played in the World Series before. I played in the national championship before, but I hadn’t won it yet, so … I can’t explain it. I’m on Cloud 9 just thinking about it.”

When asked how proud she was to be one of the few from Hawaii to win an NCAA title, Alo said; “It feels really good. Every time I go on the field, I remember where I’m from and the things I represent, so I always carry a piece of Hawaii with me whenever I am playing.”

She would remind TV viewers of such, flashing shaka signs with every home run.

Alo, who plans to return to Oklahoma for her senior season, is on the brink of breaking the NCAA career home run record. She set a school single-season record with 34 homers in 2021 and has 88 career homers, seven shy of NCAA record-holder and former Sooner Lauren Chamberlain (95).

Alo says faith is such a big factor in success.

“Just with hard work and dedication that things like this can happen,” Alo said. “And to just remember to keep God and your family and the values that you have always with you. And just continue to represent your home state because I feel like Hawaii kids get overlooked, so whenever one gets to shine the way that they deserve to, just take it and run with it.”

Jhenna Gabriel

Gabriel was totally surprised to be recruited by a Power-Five school.

She said her club coach Luis Ramirez “called me up one day, was like ‘Jhenna, Texas wants to talk to you.’ I was like, ‘Texas? Like the Longhorns, Texas?’ And he was like, ‘Yes.’ … Oh my goodness, completely star-struck. It was the craziest thing.”

Gabriel said she told Texas coach Jerritt Elliott that she would “work my hardest to see some court time and it ended up paying off.”

In her freshman year in 2018, Gabriel finished with 393 assists (4.91 per set). In 2019 she dished out a team-best 1,019 assists (10.51 per set). In the fall of 2020, she led the Big 12 Conference with 11.58 assists per set.

In the national championship match, she had 52 assists and six digs in a 20-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-22 loss.

“Being in the finals was very surreal,” said the 5-foot-8 Gabriel, “especially growing up, that was always my biggest dream as a little girl and to actually get that far and say that I’ve been to a national championship was something I didn’t necessarily I know I was going to be able to achieve. … So to actually get there and to be able to experience that especially after the year we had with COVID definitely made it mean a little more.”

Gabriel comes from a family of athletes — her father is former Punahou standout Darryl, her uncle Garrett beat BYU twice as a UH quarterback, and her cousin Dillon is s standout QB at UCF — and she brings that same athletic drive.

“I think it’s so important to not give up and just continue to put your head down and go to work and work harder than anybody around you,” Gabriel said. “Because it’s possible. It’s possible to be able to leave Hawaii and go play college sports at the highest level and to win national championships and just be able play for something that’s bigger than us and play for home … because it’s so special to hear them call out your name, (from) Honolulu, Hawaii, when they’re calling the starting lineup is one of the best feelings in the world.”

If there’s anything that Gabriel and Alo displayed, it’s that Hawaii athletes can ball.

“I think it proves that just because we’re so isolated, and we live out in the middle of the ocean doesn’t mean that we can’t go up against the best of the best in the mainland,” Gabriel said.

“I think that due to our lack of exposure from being on the islands not being able to go up to as many tournaments and getting the same exposure to college coaches and college programs the way that people on the mainland do, just because all of those things hinder us from getting to such an elite level, doesn’t mean we can’t do it. I think it’s really cool that especially the year we had (that) we had so much representation from the islands in all those national championships across all different sports. It’s very humbling to be a part of a small group that can say that we did it.”

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See full interview at hawaiiprepworld.com

Reach Curtis Murayama at cmurayama@staradvertiser.com