DAVE Shoji knows only too well. It's not all roses
for the Wahine volleyball teamWahine volleyball is a monster. And monsters have to be fed . . . A lot.
So do fevers. Or so I'm told.
This fever breaks the thermometer during University of Hawaii volleyball seasons. It's one of the reasons men's coach Mike Wilton pitched the idea of the Stan Sheriff Center being the semi-permanent home of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament to his fellow coaches a few months back.
It's the reason Team USA opened its men's national tour here, and likely will be back in a few months. It's the reason Sports Illustrated and the L.A. Times actually deign to cover a match . . . when it's in Hawaii.
Nowhere else in the country will 10,000 fans turn out for college volleyball.
And nowhere else in the country would people notice -- much less care -- that a university women's volleyball team lost its captain.
But Hawaii cares about its volleyball. And it loves its Wahine.
Kelli Cordray would have been a near-invisible student-athlete on any other campus. But she was an icon at UH, even though she saw limited playing time.
THE incoming senior captain was on trading cards, posters, even did a few TV commercials recently. Little girls smothered her at camps and clinics, and she smothered them right back with genuine friendliness.
She was the last link to the Wahine teams of 1995 and '96 that went a combined 66-4. Maybe that's why it's so hard to let her go without a satisfying explanation.
Players have come and gone through the Wahine varsity program since 1974, some staying longer than others. For the most part, those who left early did so with little notice or -- literally -- fanfare.
It's been a program remarkably free of scandal as it heads into its 25th season. This is not to say it has been perfect.
There has been dissension among the players, some threatening to quit. Tita Ahuna left the team briefly over a disagreement with Shoji; she returned to captain the 1987 national champions.
The Wahine are unlike any volleyball team in America with their high profile and celebrity status.
They are like every other athletic team in the country. There are disagreements with coaches, resentment over lack of playing time, recruiting mistakes, accusations of favoritism, academic casualties and team rule-breaking.
Through it all, the Wahine have refused to air the ohana's dirty laundry in public. All Cordray would tell me Friday was she felt her statement released Thursday said it all and that she wanted to keep her departure pleasant.
NOW back home in California, she is pursuing a career and planning her August 1999 wedding. She said she only decided last week not to return for a fourth year and that decision "had nothing to do with volleyball."
Maybe there is trouble in paradise. Maybe not.
Maybe we don't want to know. Or need to know.
The problem with Wahine volleyball is the players have become family. We see them in our living rooms, whether it be on TV or on the front of the sports section of the newspaper.
The public has gained an intimacy with this team that is both a source of envy and concern. There isn't much difference between a fan and fanatic.
There's a lot of pressure on this team to do well. Last year's 25-8 record was a major disappointment to the players and coaches so accustomed to winning.
Shoji admits the departures have been an eye-opener and an ear-opener. Senior setter Nikki Hubbert says team talks have gone well.
Practice opens a week from today. Time to start grocery shopping.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.