You hear it all the time in sports, especially at the collegiate level. We are told to those who have been given a lot, much is expected. ADVERTISING You hear it all the time in sports, especially at the collegiate
You hear it all the time in sports, especially at the collegiate level. We are told to those who have been given a lot, much is expected.
Some major college coaches talk about de-recruitment, that is, after all the full ride scholarships have been handed out, after the lounges, game rooms and movie theaters — off limits to all non-scholarship athlete students — have been explored, there comes a time when everything shifts. Coaches put the burden on the players, demand more from them because they have been given so much.
It must sound like a foreign language conversation for the soccer players the University of Hawaii at Hilo where facilities are minimal, at best, but the desire to be recognized and achieve is understood by every one of them.
It had been three full days since the last raindrops fell on the soccer field at UHH, but at the end of the week, you might have thought it just rained all night long.
“It makes everything a challenge,” goalkeeper Cassidy Dixon, a senior from Pahoa, said of the rutted, soggy field the school provides. “Things like working on simple, straight passing lanes doesn’t work well because the ball will take a weird bounce, you can’t predict where it will go.
“That’s just how it is here,” he said. “People accept it for what it is.”
That last line could serve as a slogan for the Vulcans’ two soccer programs, such as they are. Fully involved in the Pacific West Conference, the same lopsided schedules faced by other Hawaii schools, with one coach overseeing both squads in the same season and a training field seldom available. They play on a good field loaned to them from a local high school.
It takes a certain strain of character, a feisty, stubborn resolve to be a part of this particular Division II school’s effort at competing in soccer.
“We all understand the necessity of supporting each other,” said Jenna Hufford, who will also be a senior, on the women’s team, when the 2017 season opens in the fall. “We deal with stuff none of the others have to but we try to use it to build a stronger bond, that’s what we have to do.”
The sport has been part of UHH for 10 years. The usually unplayable soccer field — plenty large enough for a full-sized field, plus stands, scoreboard, concessions and restrooms — is the same today as it was then. Nothing has been done by any administrator to install an acceptable field that would benefit the greater Hilo soccer community.
In every match, Hufford and Dixon have the big picture view, they see how their defense reacts, notice how quickly a loose ball can be turned into offensive opportunities, or not. They see if teammates play with tactical aggression, or if they hang their heads when something goes wrong.
So in this spring offseason in which the NCAA allows only two hours a week of practice with a coach — no more than six players at a time— they gather together without coaches and play in small spaces that demand good ball skills and tight communication.
Out of this, playing on field with two-inch deep ruts left when the riding mower attempts to do its job, Hufford and Cassidy can visualize the conclusion to their collegiate careers and despite everything they know, they think it will be good.
A big part of that will rely on the recruiting job turned in by coach Gene Okamura, still considered an interim almost a year and a full season of coaching both teams, since former coach Lance Thompson resigned. This is the first time he has had the burden of recruiting representable players for two teams, and while Okamura has heard the school will hire a second coach for the approaching season, as of last week, an athletic department representative said no search for a soccer coach had begun. They are organized to find a new volleyball coach, but the second soccer coach will have to wait.
And so it goes for UHH soccer. Expect nothing, blame nobody, go out and perform.
In the meantime, Okamura has devoted himself to recruiting and he expects to bring in at least a dozen new players for each team. That means anyone who played last year for the men’s (1-14-2, 0-11-2 in the PWC), or the women’s (5-7-4, 3-6-4), team are working this spring with the knowledge that when fall training opens, they may lose their spot to a newcomer.
Yet, they show up, they work on their own, pushing each other on the small section of the field that is still playable.
“The big thing is, we support each other,” Hufford said. “Without that, we would have nothing.
“To me, I think we need more of that, we need to communicate better both here and in games, we all have to be on the same page at all times. If we are, we have a chance, but if we aren’t willing to work together and communicate even more, it would be ugly.
“We talk about it a lot,” she said. “We all understand we must truly be together, at all times.”
Dixon said last season was especially difficult because Okamura “had to go from zero to 60 immediately just to begin to sort out positions.
“We only had three seniors, which wasn’t helpful,” Dixon said, “and as the season went along, we tried to move guys here and there but we didn’t have a lot of flexibility in terms of personnel; Gene would move someone to shore up a problem area, and it would help, but then the position that guy was moved from would have issues.
“I felt like we sort of figured out the best spots for everyone at the end of the season, and that just made it hard,” he said. “We wanted to keep playing, we were getting better.”
Hufford feels encouraged by what she has seen from her teammates in this offseason, when nobody is paying attention, when coaches aren’t around, when it’s easier to let things slide.
“Gene has been great for us,” she said, “his encouragement, the way he pushes us is what we need and right now, this is the hardest we’ve worked since I’ve been here, the effort, the commitment to team is there.
“There’s nothing we can do about the field, the conditions we play in, the way we are always traveling around to find a place to practice. I wasn’t expecting the best DII field in the country when I came here,” Hufford said, “but no, I didn’t expect this.
“If we get the solid kind of communication we all know we need, this will be our best year, I really feel that way. We have to support each other every day, every practice, no matter what.”
They accept the notion of support and use it as a frame in which to build a better future, a novel concept at a school that hasn’t always grasped the same idea.
