Holly Yamada brought a 30-inch jump to Regis and an enthusiasm unmatched by anyone.
Holly regales
at Regis
Farrington graduate Holly Yamada
stars at the Denver school
The image will linger for years in the memories of the volleyball faithful at Denver's Regis University: Holly Yamada has pounded one of her 1,281 kills or leaped Rocky Mountain-high to serve one of her teeth-rattling aces.
The Regis players have gathered in a loose circle in the center of their court -- as volleyball teams do after a point. Yamada screams, points to the crowd, races for the circle and slides into the center of it on her knees.
The crowd goes wild.
Ron Crane, athletic facilities coordinator at Regis, has seen it hundreds of times.
"It was a big motivator," Crane said. "She would do great deeds and slide out there. It kept everybody pretty enthusiastic, even when the team was down."
On Friday, Yamada, a 2001 graduate of Honolulu's Farrington High School, was named to the coaches' All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference first team for the third year in a row.
Tom Shoji, brother of Hawaii women's volleyball coach Dave Shoji and long-time coach at Colorado State-Pueblo, said, "... when we prepare a scouting report on Regis, Holly's name is always highlighted.
"If you can control Holly, you have a chance to beat Regis. She's exciting to watch and not much fun to coach against."
Yamada has ended her career ranked eighth all-time in kills for Regis and seventh in total attacks (3,637).
She ranks No. 1 in enthusiasm.
"I haven't seen anybody with this much enthusiasm in my 10 years in the RMAC," said Crane.
Regis coach Frank Lavrisha elaborates:
"She has great Hawaiian spirit and when that comes out is when she plays her best ... when she is loose and has fun with it."
She has Hawaiian spirit, but Yamada is originally from Guam. She moved to Hawaii in 1999 to get a better volleyball challenge and her parents followed when they could arrange transfers.
Lavrisha said Yamada has relatives everywhere that Regis plays -- an uncle here, an auntie there.
Part of the reason she chose a college in Denver was that about 15 of her relatives lived there and came to every match. But after 9/11, most of them were transferred.
Her father is a National Guard instructor currently in Texas teaching Guardsmen who are headed for Iraq or Afghanistan.
Yamada brought more than a 30-inch vertical and devastating arm swing to Regis volleyball.
She sang the National Anthem before a game once and the treats her parents brought from Hawaii were the highlight of post-match "socials."
Her mother works for Continental Airlines and her parents went to Denver four times this season.
"Every trip they bring pineapple, chocolate mac candy and Kona coffee and they make pancit, potato salad, Spam musubi, teriyaki beef, BBQ chicken and chicken kelaguen (a Guamanian dish of shredded chicken in lime sauce and grated coconut)."
Lavrisha says Yamada's "dynamic ability and her personality" were evident in all phases of Regis volleyball.
"She worked at our camps the last two summers, and the kids were all about Holly," he said.
" 'I really want to get jumping like Holly,' they would say. If we had a staff scrimmage, 90 percent would say 'I was watching No. 12.' "
Yamada was volleyball tri-captain and a member of the Student Athletes Advisory Committee at Regis.
"She went to a conference in San Diego last February," Lavrisha said, "and began to understand that people look to her to be a leader. It made a huge difference in her confidence."
Yamada says Jenic Tumaneng, her coach at Farrington, "made the biggest contribution to how I am today.
"He always tried to relate the game to life and things we were going to have to learn how to deal with later in life.
"He was the first coach I ever had that was really patient and understood us better," she said. "You respect coaches that don't intimidate you or are violent.
"You're not scared they are going to yell at you and you don't want to let them down."
Holly Yamada didn't let anybody down.
Stanford swimmer Sun
shines in pool
Stanford sophomore Hongzhe Sun was named Swimmer of the Meet at the prestigious Speedo Cup in California last weekend after he won three events, and swam the second- and third-fastest backstroke times in the nation this season.Sun is a 2003 Iolani graduate from Ewa Beach and was the Pac-10 men's swimming Newcomer of the Year last season. He holds six Hawaii high school state meet records.
At the Speedo Cup in Long Beach, he won the 200-yard backstroke in 1 minute, 43.44 seconds -- second best by 22/100ths of a second to Olympian Ryan Lochte of Florida (also done last weekend).
Sun's 100 backstroke time of 47.72 seconds at the Speedo Cup ranks third in the NCAA this season and his winning 200-yard individual medley of 1:47.39 is fifth-best
Both the 200 backstroke and individual medley times are career bests for Sun.
"It was very encouraging," Sun said, "based on the fact that it is still early in the season and I'm working through these meets. I won't taper (ease off his workouts to have more energy for races) until NCAAs."
While Sun's 200 backstroke time was not his personal best, it is 3 seconds faster than he was doing at this time last year.
He said he intended to "train hard and keep my head straight. Come time for NCAAs, I should be expecting some fast times."
Sun said he took the summer off after the Olympic Trials. He spent August in Shanghai studying the Chinese language (he was born in China and came to Hawaii at age 5).
"It was a good mental and physical adjustment," he said, "now it's time to get back to work.
"I have big shoes to fill," Sun said. "We graduated the two best backstrokers in Stanford history.
"I'm confident that in time I hopefully will be able to take on the role."
Ogoshi reaches her goal as
the rookie of the year
Being selected the Colonial Athletic Association volleyball Rookie of the Year meant more than a major award for 2004 Roosevelt High School graduate Shellane Ogoshi of New York's Hofstra University."It showed me that if I really focus on something that I want, I can accomplish anything," Ogoshi said.
Ogoshi even got a writeup in the national NCAA News on Monday.
She led Hofstra in assists (11.94 per game, second in the conference) and digs (3.59 per game, seventh in the CAA).
With 1,218 assists in one season, she has already broken into Hofstra's career top 10.
"At a team meeting at the beginning of the year, our coach said to write down an individual goal and a team goal," Ogoshi recalled. "One of my individual goals was to win Rookie of the Year. It is awesome to complete something I set out to do.
Other honors include:
» Southern Utah senior offensive tackle Iosefa Robins (Saint Louis '00 of Nuuanu) yesterday was named second-team All-Great West Conference.
» Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) sophomore Tim Brown (Iolani '03) was chosen first-team All-Southern California conference (SCIAC) in water polo for the second year in a row.
» Cal State Dominguez Hills senior middle blocker Keesha Aldridge (Aiea '01) was chosen second team All-California Collegiate conference. Aldridge, a four-year starter, set Dominguez Hills' career blocking records.
» Menlo (Calif.) sophomore blocker Sanoe' Eselu (Moanalua '03 of Waipahu) and freshman setter Alyssa Chang (Maryknoll '04 of Tantalus) were both named first-team All-California Pacific Conference for Menlo, which went 18-0 in the CalPac and 21-3 overall.
Chang was named CalPac Freshman of the Year.
Junior Kari Shimomura (McKinley '02 of Kaimuki) was chosen on the All-CalPac second team and freshman libero Christa Hewett (Kamehameha '04 of Pearl City) earned honorable mention.
