FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maja Gustin has topped the 1,000-kill mark and is 10th in total career blocks for the Rainbow Wahine.
Slovenian Maja Gustin
has found much more than
success in Hawaii
SHAKESPEARE had it right. The world is an oyster. This particular oyster -- the one Maja Gustin holds -- has a pearl in each side: Hawaii and Maribor, Slovenia. For the past few days, the halves have become one with the arrival of Gustin's mother Jasna Gustin Gricnik.
It is Gricnik's first visit to America. She has quickly come to learn why her only daughter loves everything about this second home, from playing for the No. 2 Hawaii women's volleyball team to being able to create her own major at UH.
Hawaii is not so different from Maribor, which touts itself as "The City of Kind People." There's some 19 hours of air miles between the two, but there are more similarities than differences.
Hawaii is a melting pot of cultures. So, too, is Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia and long the crossroad of central and southeastern Europe.
Go one direction, and there is Italy. Go in another, and there is Austria. Or Hungary. Or Croatia.
Go west ... and keep going ... and there is Hawaii. It's an unlikely journey that few make, still fewer to play volleyball.
It was hard for Gricnik to let her daughter go, sight unseen, to such a faraway place. Gustin knew it would be difficult, and didn't tell her mother of the plan until the official papers were in hand.
Papers that needed to be signed to allow the 19-year-old Gustin to move halfway around the world. Papers that would change everything.
"It was hard to say yes," said Gricnik, who works as an accountant. "When I was flying over Canada (last week), I thought, 'Maja, how did you do this?' She did not know how to travel on the plane, she never took care of herself before, she was going to be by herself without any friends. I doubted in the beginning how she'd face everything.
"But now ... I am so proud of her. I am so happy she is my daughter. She has changed a lot, the challenges have changed her. And I see how people here love Maja."
IT WAS NOT difficult for the Wahine ohana to include Gustin from the beginning. Although her English was suspect -- self-taught mostly by watching reruns of "Oprah" -- her playing skills were flawless.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii senior Maya Gustin has been spending time with her mother Jasna Gricnik and stepfather Jose Gricnik on their visit from Slovenia.
In three-plus seasons, Gustin has been a fixture in the middle. She reached the 1,000-kill mark on Oct. 4 against Nevada, the team the Wahine play today (5 p.m. Hawaii time). She is 10th in career total blocks and needs nine service aces to move into the UH career top 10.
Coach Dave Shoji first learned of Gustin from former UH basketball player Ales Zivanovic, who was from her hometown.
"He kept telling me there was this girl who was a really good volleyball player who lived in his parents' building," said Shoji. "It took a while before we could get her eligible. She'd try to take the (college eligibility) test but she'd get snowed in, or the roads were closed, or the war prevented it. Finally, she passed it.
"I'm so thankful her mom let her come. It's so far away. She has filled a big void in our program. There's not many 6-foot-3 players who can block and hit like her.
"As a person, she's really grown while she's been here. And she is such a good person."
Gustin often refers to her teammates as angels. It's a genuine belief in the goodness of people, their spirituality, something that led Gustin to create a liberal studies major dealing with religion as a tool for peaceful, non-violent solutions to world problems.
"Hawaii is like its own little planet," said Gustin, "with all the cultures and races and people. Being here has helped me with my view of the world, and to see that we are all the same. We're all looking for happiness and peace. It is a very small world."
As a teen, her world was in turmoil. She saw firsthand the ugliness of war as Slovenia fought for independence.
The price of freedom came at a personal cost. Her father, a policeman, died, more a victim of hopelessness and helplessness after fighting political ideologies that went against his nature.
Gustin wants to change that through peace. Her teammates see her as a future ambassador or international mediator.
Her mother has confidence Gustin will be successful in whichever path she takes.
"I didn't want her to come here, but I see how she made a great decision," said Gricnik. "In our country, it is not a daily thing to go study in America, to play volleyball in Hawaii.
"She has made quite a journey and I know that wherever she goes from here, she'll do the best she can in her life. I know she will do something good for humanity."
GUSTIN HAS ONLY been home twice in the past four years. She and her mother and stepfather, Joze Gricnik, spent quality time in the five days prior to the Wahine leaving for today's match at Nevada.
On Tuesday, Jasna Gricnik celebrated her 50th birthday, a milestone known as "Abraham" in Slovenia. It normally results in a huge party, something Gricnik will have when she returns home Nov. 16.
"We are very close, and even though we aren't together physically, we are together in our hearts," Gustin said. "It was special for me that she was here for her birthday. I took her to Lanikai, which is my favorite beach, and we had a little picnic.
"It's hard now for me to leave her and go on the road. I've joked that it's my turn to miss a road trip (as have seniors Lily Kahumoku and Kim Willoughby), but I have friends who will take care of her. They'll be tourists without me. They've already seen the aloha spirit."
Gricnik has yet to see a Wahine volleyball match at the Stan Sheriff Center. But when she met the players at Tuesday's practice, she was greeted as a new-found aunty.
Thanks to reading newspaper accounts on the Internet and watching video tapes of Hawaii's matches, "I feel like I knew all the players before I met them," said Gricnik, who presented the team with specially made T-shirts emblazoned with "Slovenia" on them.
"We get the family together to watch the tapes. But I am looking forward to being in the arena (for Senior Night on Nov. 15). Maja tells me it is crazy and I believe her."
Gricnik has learned to trust her daughter. It was a leap of faith that allowed her to let Gustin find the other half of the oyster. And to show that love holds with an open hand and not a closed fist.
