HAWAII GROWN REPORT
COURTESY OF HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY
Roosevelt High graduate Shellane Ogoshi has achieved some lofty goals as a member of Hofstra's volleyball team.
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Lucky charm
Shellane Ogoshi says luck has brought her success; her coaches say it's her work ethic
SHELLANE Ogoshi says it was a luck thing that resulted in her receiving the opportunity to play NCAA Division I volleyball for the Hofstra Pride.
Ogoshi by the numbers
Career highs at Hofstra University
Kills
» 8 vs. UC Davis (9-3-04)
Assists
» 64 vs. George Mason (10-16-04)
Blocks
» 3 at Kentucky (9-11-04)
Aces
» 4 at Columbia (9-13-04); at Northeastern (9-10-06); vs. Towson State (9-24-06)
Digs
» 32 at Northeastern (11-12-05)
Courtesy of Hofstra University
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There was no luck, just hard work involved in the 5-foot-2 setter being named National Player of the Week on Tuesday by Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU.com). This honor came one day after Ogoshi was named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, the fifth time she has been so cited in her career.
She had 43 assists on Sept. 21, when Hofstra handed Delaware it first loss of the season, and 49 assists last Sunday when the Pride beat Towson State.
Ogoshi received some interest from Division II and NAIA schools, but Notre Dame de Namur was the only school to offer a scholarship. She had graduated from Roosevelt ('04) and was playing for the Quicksets Volleyball Club at the Junior Olympics in Texas that summer when her luck changed.
Pride coach Lauren Netherby tells the story she heard from retired coach Fran Kalafer.
"It was the end of a long day. Shellane's team wasn't doing too well and was playing on a back court," Netherby said "Elaine Roque (an assistant) told Fran she had to come over and look at this kid and look at (the quickness of) her feet. Fran took one look at Shellane and said, 'I want her.' "
Ogoshi was a setter and sometimes outside hitter for the Rough Riders, but Kalafer recruited her as a libero and offered her a full athletic scholarship.
"They talked to my dad (her club coach). It was a big relief and the best thing that ever happened to me," said Ogoshi, who started playing volleyball when she was 4 years old and admits to being a gym rat. "I didn't want my parents (Kent Ma and Mary Ogoshi) to have to pay for my college education. It was a nice plane ride back home.
"A lot of schools turned me down because of my height (5-foot-2). It was refreshing to know there was a school out there willing to give someone a chance because of what they worked for."
For the rest of the summer, she worked hard with her father learning the libero position.
Then, when practice started her freshman year, there was another stroke of good luck for Ogoshi. The previous Pride setter, a freshman, decided not to return to school. Suddenly, Ogoshi was setting again.
"I wasn't expecting it, but sometimes things happen for a reason," Ogoshi said. "Setting certainly was something I was more used to."
Before the season started, Kalafer asked each of her players to write down their goals. One of Ogoshi's goals was to be named rookie of the year in the Colonial Athletic Association.
At season's end, after playing in all 105 games, dishing out 1,254 assists, digging 383 balls, putting down 73 and serving 20 aces, she was named rookie of the year.
"I never expected it to happen so it was quite fulfilling," Ogoshi said.
She also was named to the All-CAA tournament team and was selected the Coca-Cola Team Most Valuable Player.
Last year one of her goals was to be named either setter or defensive player of the year.
"I never expected to be player of the year," said Ogoshi, who took that honor as well as setter of the year.
Netherby said, "Shellane is the type of student-athlete who will give you leadership. She will always work and work to get better. We don't have to push her to work harder. She is the kind of player a coach wants."
Ogoshi's goals this year are to keep improving and do better with her digs and assists.
"Shellane has court savvy and a sense of what's going on the other side of the net. It's kind of an innate thing," said Netherby.
"Last year we brought in a freshman setter, but Shellane runs a better offense at this point. Next year we will give her a chance to move to libero. It is kind of tough having a small block up front. I think she can dominate our conference at libero."
Ogoshi didn't much difficulty adjusting to life on Hofstra's Hempstead, N.Y., campus.
"I knew that home wasn't going away. Both of my parents were very supportive of me getting an experience away from home," Ogoshi said.
She has been to a couple of Broadway plays and discovered an L&L Barbecue in the city.
"I took my teammates with me. There was two scoops of rice and salad on the side. They even had Aloha juice drinks. We took a couple of cases back with us on the train," Ogoshi said.
She is majoring in international business and would like to apply her degree in a career in Hawaii.
"I want to come back and I would be OK with most anything in the general field. That is my goal for the future," Ogoshi said.
"I love the game more than anything, but I have never loved it as much as I do now. I'm having a lot of fun and I think the girls on my team have a lot to do with it. It is comforting to see smiles on the faces of my teammates."
Ogoshi's parents made another trip to watch her play two home matches this past weekend, and they brought the required care package with them.
"I had them bring rice, nori and Li Hing Mui powder for me and chocolates and coffee that I can give away," Ogoshi said.
Notes: Kaipo Kealalio, a two-time Kauai Interscholastic Federation Coach of the Year (2004, 2005) at Kapaa, joined the Pride this year as an assistant coach.
"Elaine had visited the islands quite a bit and knew Kaipo. I was looking for a setter coach and he was a setter in college (UC Irvine)," said Netherby, who played for Nevada from 1997 to 1999.
"One of my best experiences was playing against USC in a (1999) tournament at Hawaii before the UH match. There probably were 9,000 fans there and they all became Nevada fans. Unfortunately, we lost the fifth game 18-16," Netherby said.