Tuesday, July 21, 1998

Flores gets
shot in Europe

The chance to play in
Belgium surprises the
former Wahine

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

Nani Flores was busy finishing her requirements for a degree when University of Hawaii basketball coaches Vince Goo and George Wolfe asked if she was still interested in playing competitive basketball.

It was a complete surprise to the former Wahine power forward, who will earn her degree in sociology from UH next month.

"It's been two years since I played for the Wahine. I didn't think I would be playing any kind of organized basketball any more," Flores said. "It seemed like there was too much time between then and now."

That last thought proved inaccurate once Didiei Princen, the coach of Mosa Gambes Femina, a first division team located in Mamur, Belgium, saw a short video tape of Flores in action.

With her diploma in the bank, the 6-foot-2 Pearl City High School graduate will head to Europe Aug. 3 to begin a new career.

"As soon as I found out (about three weeks ago) they were interested, I started training really hard," Flores said. "I had been working with weights and doing some running, but I needed to get my repetitions in at the gym with the basketball."

Since she finished her Wahine career, Flores has played basketball in some small but not very serious leagues. She has surfed a lot and paddled the Molokai-to-Oahu race with Hui Lanakila a year ago.

"I'm really excited. It's kind of like a dream come true," she said. "It's something I never thought would happen and it's happened. It's hard to believe, especially since I wasn't really a leading scorer (with the Wahine) or got much hype my last two years.

"I'm just looking at it as an opportunity. I've never been to Europe and our first road trip is to Portugal.

"It's a chance to get my foot in the door. If I do well, then who knows what will happen."

Mosa Gambes Femina finished sixth in league play a year ago. Princen said the team was young, which should give her a good chance to make a meaningful contribution.

Flores attended the University of Illinois at Chicago her freshman year playing volleyball and basketball. She discovered the level of competition there wasn't what she expected. She also read about the Wahine volleyball and basketball teams both being ranked in the top 25.

One question -- "What am I doing here?" -- kept crossing her mind.

She returned to Hawaii, played volleyball for one season, then settled on basketball.

She averaged 7.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in 78 games for the Wahine.