Even sprints mean a little more to McKenna Haire these days.
A foot injury kept the University of Hawaii guard off the court for the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s postseason run last March.
So while some might dread conditioning drills, Haire savors any chance to run up and down the court.
“Sitting out for so long gave me a different perspective of the game,” she said Monday, the eve of UH’s first public appearance of the season. “I really appreciated being out there doing sprints, honestly. I started missing that.”
After a summer dedicated to rehabbing her foot — and now less than a week away from UH’s season opener at Oregon State — the UH graduate student is looking forward to returning to game speed when the Rainbow Wahine face Hawaii Pacific University in an exhibition game tonight at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
“I feel like we’ve all been working for months and months on end now,” Haire said. “So just to finally put on the big show and play as a unit and not against each other in practice is going to be super rewarding.”
Haire joined the UH program as a graduate transfer from Princeton and made her Rainbow Wahine debut in last year’s exhibition win over HPU, contributing eight points and three rebounds in 10 minutes against the Sharks.
She made five starts in 15 appearances and was averaging 16.7 minutes per game when her season ended in early February due to a ruptured plantar fascia in her right foot.
Haire had her foot in a cast for 21⁄2 months before progressing to a protective boot. Originally from Charlotte, N.C., she spent her summer in Hawaii working on regaining her strength and agility.
“We have really good support staff here, so they made it a lot easier for sure,” said Haire, who was “full go” again in August.
Although sidelined for the final six weeks of the season, Haire still played a role in UH’s run to the Big West regular-season and tournament championships and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“Her voice is great,” UH coach Laura Beeman said of Haire’s presence on the bench and in the locker room. “She’s a positive teammate, she celebrates others, she’s more mature being a sixth-year senior, she knows what to expect. She’s just a very consistent player. As a coach, you’re thankful that you have kids like her on the team.
“Even when she was injured, she was still a vital part of what we were trying to get done.”
Haire shares team-captain duties with center Kallin Spiller and guard Olivia Davies and has also taken on the role of “team mom” within the roster, “whether that means feeding them, holding them accountable on the court, or just being there for them,” she said.
Haire is among 11 returnees off of last season’s 20-10 team that became the first in program history to pair conference regular-season and tournament titles. Tonight’s game will also serve as an introduction for transfer guard Lily Wahinekapu (Cal State Fullerton) and forward Meg Jefferson (Virginia) and freshmen Jovi Lefotu, Avery Watkins and Imani Perez.
“We have been putting in a lot of work since June,” said guard Daejah Phillips, UH’s top returning scorer at 10 points per game. “I think the fans will love it. We have some really good new players and everybody has their own role in what we need to win a game.”
“(The transfers) catch on pretty quick because they know how fast it has to be, and our freshmen have caught on very fast. So I think everybody’s on the same page.”
Beeman said she plans on getting a look at varied on-court combinations in tonight’s exhibition with an eye on the season-opening road trip to Oregon State (Nov. 7) and Portland (Nov. 9).
“They’ve been competing against each other in practice. We now want to see them compete against somebody else and what that looks like,” Beeman said.
HPU will make its debut under first-year coach Katie Novak, who was hired in July. Senior guard Avery Cargill led the Sharks with 58 3-pointers while averaging 11.5 points per game last season, when the Sharks went 9-18 overall and 6-14 in PacWest play.
EXHIBITION WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Hawaii Pacific vs. Hawaii
>> When: Today, 7 p.m.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
