The University of Hawaii football team finally got an official starting quarterback Thursday afternoon in Ikaika Woolsey.

But UH has had one off the field for months in Lois Manin.

“She’s worth her weight in gold for this trip,” athletic director David Matlin said. “She’s been our quarterback.”

Manin is a key leader and tireless worker as UH preps for its most logistically challenging road game since at least nine years ago, when the Warriors went to the Sugar Bowl.

That voyage was arranged on shorter notice, but this one is to a foreign country — a first for UH football. And taking on Cal in Australia is also Manin’s first game as the Rainbow Warriors’ director of football operations.

She’s been the point person on everything from accommodations to facilities to meals to transportation for a travel party of 194.

The toughest part was the grind of making sure everyone has valid passports and visas — a process that took months of planning and arduous attention to detail.

“She did it all, all the paperwork,” defensive line coach Legi Suiaunoa said. “More than half of our guys had never been out of the country, so they needed passports as well as visas.”

Attaining a passport takes a month or more. Visas are faster, but dozens of questions must be answered and sometimes supporting documentation is needed.

“It’s been a pretty big undertaking, but we all worked together to get things done,” Manin said, as she boarded a plane Thursday for Sydney as part of UH’s advance contingent. The team leaves for Australia on Saturday.

She said she’s just one cog in a big machine.

“The boys are working hard, the coaches are grinding it out, and the rest of us have worked through the challenges,” she said.

One of hers has been balancing the weeks of long work days with taking care of her 22-month-old son.

“I am very grateful to have my family and friends to help with watching my son since the hours have been a bit crazy. But it’s all worth it to me if the boys come out and play Warrior,” she said.

Manin came to UH in January from Aloha Stadium, where she was deputy manager. She was UH’s media relations director when first-year head coach Nick Rolovich was the team’s starting quarterback in 2001.

And Matlin, who became the school’s athletic director last year, said he’d always envisioned working with Manin in some capacity.

“My first week on the job I gave Scott (Chan, Aloha Stadium manager) a head’s up that at some point I’d try to hire her,” Matlin said. “I didn’t know what job, but sometimes it’s like when you’re drafting. You just want the best athlete available. She understands UH, has a variety of experience and is an extremely hard worker.”

So it was an easy sell when Rolovich mentioned Manin as a candidate for the director of operations post.

She is a rarity as a woman holding that title, but no one who has worked with her doubted her capability. She was also one of the first women to be a sports media relations director at a Division I university, and engineered a promotional campaign that helped Colt Brennan place third in the 2007 Heisman Trophy balloting.

“Outstanding,” Rolovich said, when asked to evaluate Manin’s performance. “She is She-Ra and Wonder Woman wrapped into one.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quickreads.