"When I can perfect my game,
that's when I'll say I'm good.
Until then, I'm just another
volleyball player."
--Kim Willoughby, Hawaii senior
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRYANT FUKUTOMI / BFUKUTOMI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Kim Willoughby is the school record-holder in kills, kill attempts and aces and is seven digs away from another school record.
On the right path
Kim Willoughby has chosen
a road that has paid off for her
and the Rainbow Wahine
Monday was not the day to be trying a new bus route, not in that storm. But Kim Willoughby had no choice.
She was stuck in Makakilo, where she had recently moved, and needed to get to class at the University of Hawaii. For the first time in her three-plus years on Oahu, Willoughby found herself at a bus stop, surrounded by driving rain and a dark cloud of a question hanging in the air:
NCAA Tournament
Where: Stan Sheriff Center.
Today: Brigham Young (23-8) vs. New Mexico State (30-4), 5 p.m.; No. 2 Hawaii (32-1) vs. Idaho (19-10), 7 p.m.
Tomorrow: Today's winners, 7 p.m.
Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM
TV: Live, KFVE (Ch. 5)
Tickets: Two-day package $16 (upper level), $22 (lower level). Individual match tickets, $9-12.
"Will this bus take me where I need to go?"
Trust and the kindness of strangers got Willoughby headed in the right direction. In many ways, Route 92 has been the story of her life.
The senior All-American hitter for the No. 2-ranked Hawaii women's volleyball team has always had choices, choices that went far beyond deciding whether to hit a line shot, hit cross court, or hit straight down. If Willoughby had chosen differently, she likely would still be in Napoleonville, La., raising a few kids and hanging with the same friends she has had since seventh grade.
Instead she has become one of the best -- if not the best -- ever to wear a Rainbow Wahine uniform.
Willoughby already owns the school records for kills (2,476), kill attempts (5,064) and aces (184). She needs just seven digs to pass Tita Ahuna for the UH record (1,384) and that will likely come during the middle of tonight's match with Idaho in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Two weeks from now, regardless of whether her teammates are with her in Dallas, Willoughby will pick up her fourth All-American certificate. She also might pick up the Player of the Year trophy as well, joining former Wahine greats Teee Williams and Angelica Ljungquist, who were recognized as the best nationally.
But that Willoughby is even in this position, going for an NCAA title and eying a spot on next summer's Olympic team, is a story best told while sipping sweet tea on a veranda on a long, lazy afternoon. It just might take as long as it does to get from her small village (pop. 600) to an island in the Pacific Ocean some 4,000 miles away.
It is a journey, Willoughby says, that is full of fate and luck. Luck is how she explains her God-given athletic talent and fate ... well, she knows there were angels who kept her on the right path through a rocky childhood.
"I think my sole purpose in life is to help people, especially kids for when they feel like there's no one else there for them," the sociology major said. "I want to have that presence in their lives to make a difference, whether it's foster kids, kids from broken homes, kids who sometimes get steered in the wrong direction.
"It's basically my life story. I had those kind of people in my life who steered me right and it was always coaches. I've walked that line where if I go left, then I don't know what's down that road. If I go right, I don't know what's going to happen. OK, so I chose the right road, but you have to make it worth something."
Willoughby found value in athletics. She found an outlet for frustration and anger.
She found an escape as well, one that allowed her to be whoever she wanted to be and not who people thought she was or should be. Willoughby didn't want to settle for average or easy.
"Hawaii was where I could get away," she said. "My top choices were Hawaii and Long Beach State. I had played club in Long Beach, but it was no better than being at home.
"I had wanted a college atmosphere and, even though there isn't one here, Hawaii was so different. It was like nowhere else."
Before making her decision, Willoughby spoke with her cousin, Long Beach State All-American and Olympian Danielle Scott. Scott's advice was simple: "If you want to just become the best volleyball player you can be, go to Long Beach State. If you want the whole experience, go to Hawaii."
Willoughby wasn't impressed by the island sights during her recruiting visit in 1999. What sold her was the volleyball tradition.
"It was the same vibe I got from when I went to high school state tournaments," she said. "I saw a game, it wasn't a sellout, but you knew everyone wanted to be there because they loved the sport."
Willoughby could have opted to play basketball in college -- she was the state player of the year as a high school junior and senior. Or she could have run track -- she excelled at long jump.
"In volleyball it allows me to be more relaxed and allows me to celebrate with my teammates all the time," said Willoughby, who played for the Wahine basketball team as a sophomore and junior. "In basketball, there's no celebration until after the game is over. In track, you don't celebrate until after the competition is done.
"In volleyball, it's always fun. You're always cheering. You always have something to celebrate. That's something that always pulled me towards volleyball."
Wahine coach Dave Shoji is happy that it did.
"Where would we be without Kim? I don't know if we're 32-1 without her," he said. "My guess is she's led us in kills 90 percent of the matches she's played in her four years. She's a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal volleyball player. She was destined for stardom.
"I'd rank her along with Teee Williams as being the best we've had, in having the same kind of impact for us. But I don't think anyone has had the complete package like Kim in defense, passing and overall court sense. Nothing she does surprises me anymore. I think if we had trained her as a setter, she'd be great at that, she's got that kind of athletic sense.
"She has figured out the game and broke it down to where it comes easy. I'm talking about every little part of the game -- blocking, defense, where the ball is going to go, things you can't chart. She can make any type of adjustment during the play and do something no one else can do."
The 6-foot Willoughby touches 10-5 1/2. She can go over the block and her impressive hang time allows her to change the direction of her shots.
Still, she says, she has only impressed herself once.
"Truthfully, it's hard to impress me," Willoughby said. "I've only hit the ball once where I was like, 'Wow, did I just do that?'
"It was against USC (Hawaii's only loss this season), where I jumped, hit it hard and when I got down, it was the first time that I've ever said, 'Ohmygawd.'
"How good am I? I do know that I'm not there yet. I'm not going to be there for a while. When I can perfect my game, that's when I'll say I'm good. Until then, I'm just another volleyball player."
She's a volleyball player with a plan. Her two goals -- to win a national championship and graduate -- sandwich the dream of playing in the Olympics.
Willoughby will leave for Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Olympic Training Center early next month. She knows she's competing with at least three others for one outside-hitting spot on the 2004 team for the Athens Olympics.
"If I make the team, great," she said. "If I don't, the experience of trying out will be as satisfying as playing one point. Just know that I went there and I played hard ... I won't be walking away dissatisfied or saying, 'What if.' "
Willoughby said she has no intention to play professionally until she graduates with her degree in December 2004.
"I have made a promise to a lot of people that I would graduate," she said. "I'm not going to be one of those athletes who had their senior night and that's where it ended, not caring about graduation.
"Even if someone offers me $100,000 to play (professionally), that's nothing compared to a college degree."
That degree means that Assumption (La.) High coach Sandy Fussell will be able to finally retire Willoughby's No. 30 jersey. It means that Lula Mae Willoughby's baby girl is a college graduate.
It also means that when Willoughby becomes a guidance counselor, or a probation officer, or a social worker, that she will be able to say, "There's always room for change. Look where I started and where I ended up."
Collins steps down: Former Hawaii All-American Deitre Collins has resigned as head women's volleyball coach at UNLV.
Collins, a member of the Rainbow Wahine's NCAA championship teams of 1982 and '83, was 89-136 in eight seasons with the Rebels. This year's injury-plagued team finished 13-17, 4-10 in the Mountain West Conference.
"I enjoy coaching and I hope I get a chance to continue," Collins said in a telephone call yesterday. "It's the best time for me to walk away. The team will be very young next year and somebody will get a chance to mold a new group from the start."
Collins, who submitted her resignation Tuesday, will be in Dallas in two weeks to attend the AVCA Coaches Convention that will be held in conjunction with the NCAA Tournament's final four. Her contract with the athletic department will be honored through next June.
"I get to root for UH now because I don't have any affiliation," Collins said. "I wish Dave (UH coach Shoji) the best of luck."
