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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
International players
and NCAA don’t mixTHE volleyball players gathered against the wall, all of them somber, heads down. The coach's voice, through that phone line, from that box on the table in the front of the room, was breaking along with his heart.
We heard Mike Wilton near tears, if he wasn't there already.
"I forgive him," the Hawaii coach said of the foreign player whose foreign past had caused it all to come crumbling down.
This is what we learned yesterday when UH's 2002 men's volleyball NCAA national championship was officially stricken down and taken away:
The sad truth is that NCAA rules and European athletes simply don't mix. Maybe that's just how it worked out. Maybe it's by deliberate design, but none of that matters today. What we know today is that bringing in Euros is like playing with firecrackers. There's going to be a lot of fun and a few big thrills along the way, but there's also a good chance it could blow up in your face.
Yesterday, it did.
I love Hawaii's foreign athletes. Savo. A beautiful man. Carl English. Nice hair. Dejan Miladinovic. Even nicer hair.
They play with intelligence and joy. They tend to get good grades and let Hawaii into their hearts. Foreign athletes have become one of the good things about UH sports.
It's been a wonderful ride.
But odds also say they're trouble when it comes to the NCAA.
And again we hear the tale about clubs and pros and the way they do things so differently in other countries when it comes to sports. Exactly. They do. Which is why it's almost impossible to find a guy from another continent who is not going to get you nailed.
You see, the NCAA has made that pretty clear, and in case anyone else is still fuzzy on the concept, Hawaii is now Exhibit A.
"You work so hard," setter Kimo Tuyay said. "It's heartbreaking."
It's a tough way to learn a lesson.
And again comes the story that this is nobody's fault. That there was no way that UH could have known. That this is only secondary, a minor violation.
And I believe them. It's impossible to keep track of these foreign guys and all their foreign teams and who is or isn't a pro from years gone by and half a world away.
The problem with this story is that it sounds a little too familiar. You can't play that card twice. And they'd already used it just a couple of weeks ago.
A national championship was taken away here, and UH owns up to no embarrassment.
"No, not at all," athletic director Herman Frazier said. "We've done what we can possibly do in this situation."
Hey, they didn't have all the information. The guy left a few things out.
"I wouldn't use the term 'lie,' " UH counsel Jan Gouveia said.
Well, what would you call it, then?
"The player was not fully forthcoming."
Let's go with lie.
And that's the problem here. There's no winning here. If UH did all it could possibly do and this is what happens, what does it say about foreign athletes and the NCAA?
Hawaii officials thought (or chose to believe) they had found the only great player in Europe who had never played with (against, next to, within 50 miles of) pros. They went with his word.
They got burned.
They should have known. No matter how innocent the intentions, no matter how much they have enriched the college sports experience at UH, no matter what wonderful human beings they are and how much fun it's been, European players are incompatible with NCAA rules.
Hawaii, to much success, a few suspensions, a national title and now broken hearts, has yet to get the hint.
Today, it still hasn't. "Our institution is a global institution," Frazier said. Hawaii will continue to recruit foreign players and they will continue to be one of the good things about UH sports.
And they'll continue to be trouble with the NCAA. You can bank on it. Wait and see.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
