WAHINE VOLLEYBALL
Wahine bring in project to develop
A diamond in the rough and a gem of a person. That's Mick Haley's take on Stephanie Ferrell, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter who has orally committed to play volleyball for Hawaii next season.
Ferrell, who plays for Haley's Southern California Volleyball Club Nike 18s, is a senior at Locke High School in south central Los Angeles.
"Stephanie is extremely explosive and just a wonderful person," said Haley, the former U.S. national team coach and current coach at USC. "She lives to play the game and has a tremendous upside. In juniors, she's putting down about 50 percent of her kills, which is amazing. It's hard enough to get 50 percent when there's no one blocking you."
Ferrell has only been involved with volleyball for the past 2 1/2 years. She had been attending Manual Arts in Los Angeles, taking a majority of Advanced Placement classes, but transferred back to Locke for her senior year, according to Haley, because of the time involved in getting to and from Manual Arts by bus.
Because he had taken on a mentoring role with Ferrell, Haley said he didn't feel it was appropriate to recruit her. While he did not steer her toward Hawaii, "I did tell her I thought it would be a nice fit because of the great support."
Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji is not allowed to discuss recruits until they have signed. The late signing period for volleyball starts April 11.
Hawaii also is expected to add Stephanie Brandt, a 5-9 setter who started for UC Santa Barbara as a freshman last fall, to this fall's roster.
UH also has received an early oral commit for 2008 from Kamehameha Schools 5-10 junior hitter Kanani Herring, the two-time state Gatorade Player of the Year. Herring can sign her binding letter of intent in November.
Hawaii will host Arizona on Thursday in an spring exhibition match at 7 p.m.