The immediacy of sports sets it apart from many other endeavors in society.
The immediacy of sports sets it apart from many other endeavors in society.
Sure, we can be grabbed instantly by a song we’ve never heard or a piece of art we have never seen, but for the masses, there are few disciplines that catch our attention and draw an interested response like athletics.
You probably know how this works, but a personal example for me goes back to 1986 when a fine newspaper sent me to Italy to cover World Cup, even though I knew very little about the sport at the time.
It didn’t take long.
From far up in the stands that had been converted to press row, Diego Maradona took the field with his Argentina teammates and it took only minutes to realize he was the best player on the field. Defenses collapsed on him and then when he got the ball he inexplicably exploded through them and even as you watched it in real time, you couldn’t grasp how he did it.
Higher quality ability cannot be hidden in sports, it breaks through and distinguishes itself time and time again.
It happened over the weekend on the softball field at the University of Hawaii at Hilo where second-year coach Peejay Brun sent her team out in four games Friday and Saturday against BYU-Hawaii.
No, this isn’t about the fabulous qualities of Brun’s softball team that makes them better than everyone else. Four games into the season, win or lose, isn’t the time to make those sort of judgments even by an observer with a long history of covering college softball, which I am not.
But over the years, the more you follow sports, some things sink in, almost unconsciously, and these patterns can distinguish the behavioral traits of winners. In her second year, Brun, the former Kauai High School player, has established impressive standards for the Vulcans, which brings up two points that seem incontrovertible.
The first is encouraging for the school and the softball program, because if the hunch is right, these Vulcans look, from any angle, like a playoff team and winning your way in the Pacific West Conference and achieving a regional playoff berth is a pretty big deal at Uh-Hilo. Big Island people tend to understand UHH athletic teams are at a funding disadvantage, but because Brun knows talent so well — specifically, the individual pieces necessary to harmonize in victory — and because she communicates so well with her players, she is, in a way, showing all things are possible.
It comes with an understandable downside, because if she takes the Vulcans to the playoffs this season, people will notice. The feeling around her is that she won’t be here too long. You can only imagine what she could do with a recruiting budget comparable to the moneyed programs in the conference.
In a conversation last week in her office, Brun said the biggest thing she learned in coaching has been the necessity to stay open and keep learning. Twelve years at Division I as a head coach at Siena College and later as the top assistant at Texas State-San Marcos taught her well.
“I have to grow, and keep growing,” she said. “The idea that you know it all, or that you have dealt with everything is just a killer, for me. I learn from these kids and hopefully, they learn a little from me.”
Every player almost immediately invokes their coach when you ask about goals, individual improvement, team success. Brun has mentally programmed them and it’s taking effect.
She has a remarkably athletic team, obvious in their four-game sweep of BYU-Hawaii over the weekend when the Vulcans outscored their guests by a combined 34-3. Only the first game went the regulation seven innings.
Speed wins in this game and Brun has a handful of players who will consistently beat an infield ground ball to first base. They are more than good defensively, going three games over the weekend before finally committing an error. She recruited a freshman pitcher who has gone the last 22 innings allowing just one run, an earned run average of 0.31. She has a few who can, and did hit home runs, game-winning homers at that.
You don’t have to know much about softball to appreciate this team, all you have to do is watch. It’s a sight to see, an example of successful attitudes understood and put in motion.
Recommended viewing, indeed, for as long as they can keep the coach on the Big Island.
Contact Bart for questions or comments at barttribuneherald@gmail.com