Rainbow Wahine staff
grows under Bolla

Head coach Jim Bolla doubled the size of the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball staff yesterday by hiring Lacole Brooks and Liz O'Brien.

Brooks joins the program as an associate coach. Her duties will include practice preparation, scouting, on-court coaching and recruiting. She comes to Hawaii from Tennessee-Martin, where she was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator.

O'Brien will be the director of basketball operations. She coached at Army last year, her second stint with the Black Knights. A graduate of Hofstra, where she played four seasons at point guard, O'Brien also coached at her alma mater, Dowling and South Carolina-Aiken.

Brooks grew up in Berkeley, Calif., and played two years at Merritt Community College before going on to Oregon State, where she set single-season and two-year rebounding records.

"Hawaii has had a history of great basketball and this was a chance to get back to the West Coast. I've been impressed with Jim Bolla's teams for a long time and Pat (Charity, UH associate coach) and I have been friends for a long time," said Brooks, who has 12 years of college coaching experience.

"This is a great job and all my coaching buddies are envious."

Brooks, who has a bachelor's degree in sociology and history from OSU, also has coached at East Central (Miss.) Community College, Texas State, Monterey Peninsula Community College and California.

"Lacole's arrival has been a year in the making," Bolla said. "The timing is finally right and we're happy to have her on board. The fact that she heavily recruited Cassidy Chretien, our only signee this year, shows that she believes in the same kind of kids we do."

O'Brien is a graduate assistant but not eligible to coach under NCAA rules as the director of operations. She is working on a master's degree in educational psychology.

"I'll be doing anything and everything that will make the job easier for the coaches so they can focus on coaching," said O'Brien, who looked to Hawaii for employment after her boyfriend, 1st Lt. Justin Gorkowski, was assigned to Schofield Barracks.

"I want to learn from coach Bolla. Coaching is my career. The hardest part is not being able to be out there on the floor. That will be tough and a big change," said O'Brien.

Bolla will meet with his coaches soon to assign specific duties. He said he plans to rotate those duties in the coming years.

"Part of my job is to help my assistants get ready to be a head coach some day," said Bolla.

The 2005-06 Wahine schedule remains a work in progress, as several schools decided not to come this year after expressing an interest and receiving a contract from UH.