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The Way I See It
HERE comes 2001 and it's time to sit back and gather my thoughts. What did I see, experience and write about in 2000 that's worth remembering? Stories worth a
second look from 2000What stories do I now think I would've wanted to write about even if they hadn't been assigned? I can't list them all, but here goes:
There was the University of Hawaii men's basketball team's unforgettable 103-100 double-overtime loss to Fresno State in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals at Fresno's Selland Arena in March. Seldom have I seen an overmatched team battle so hard to survive.
One had to gulp when walk-on Tre Stovall came in to score the first and only basket of his Rainbow career with nine seconds left in the second OT to tie the game at 100-100. The battle had depleted the bench.
Then finally, the cold knockout punch by Fresno State guard Demetrius Porter -- a 3-pointer at the buzzer. It left even reporters drained.
I'll remember standing on the field in Fenway Park during batting practice in July, watching Benny Agbayani of the New York Mets take more turns in the cage than anyone. When it came to outfield practice, he stayed out under the Green Monster longer than any of his teammates.
I can't forget the admiration Met manager Bobby Valentine expressed for Agbayani's tireless effort and example. I realized then and there that this had to be one of the major reasons he wanted the football player-sized outfielder around his players. Agbayani didn't have to be a superstar. He just had to be Benny and be contagious.
EVEN though I didn't go to Sydney, I stayed in touch with several Hawaii athletes by phone. I was able to feel some of the painful disappointment experienced by light flyweight boxer Brian Viloria, from Waipahu, after a stunning upset ended his quest for gold.
Few were under as much pressure to win as Viloria, who held the world amateur title and had been gilded from head to toe for a full-page Sports Illustrated photo.
Now the charismatic young man with the lighting fists is deliberating whether to train for gold in Athens or turn pro.
I covered the Wahine volleyball team for the first time, and my impressions were formed as an innocent bystander at courtside.
I felt the power of a Lily Kahumoku kill. How the sight of her rising to slam a set ignites the crowd like a match dropped into a pool of gasoline.
I learned what it's like to cover a team on a win streak that reached 27 matches. In Hawaii sports, what can compare with this?
I learned about Hawaii's volleyball phenomenon -- a phenomenon that makes players like Kahumoku, Jessica Sudduth, Kim Willoughby, Maja Gustin, Jennifer Carey and Veronica Lima instantly recognizable local celebrities when they walk down the street.
And when the season really kicked into gear, I got swept up into the maelstrom that is the Hawaii-Long Beach State rivalry. I certainly won't forget the deafening Stan Sheriff Center sellout crowd that helped the Wahine finally win an NCAA tournament match against the 49ers in a super-charged five-game battle.
I never believed that a woman could run the Honolulu Marathon in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes.
But when Russians Lyubov Morgunova and Svetlana Zakharova both crossed the line on Dec. 8 under 2 hours and 29 minutes, I could think only one thing -- I was glad I took the gamble to ride in the women's pace car instead of the men's this year.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
Email Pat: pbigold@starbulletin.com