One of my favorite teachers, Jane Evinger, emphasized that transitions are a key to writing. Until today, I never consciously considered writing a story about them. But it seems appropriate since more than ever all of our lives are so much about how we adapt.

She also told me that everyone who assigns me a story and/or edits something I write will teach me something valuable. That turned out to be very true with all 11 sports editors I’ve worked for at daily newspapers, most here in Hawaii.

They include Paul Arnett, my co-worker and then boss for a total of about 25 years. I followed his path as the beat writer covering University of Hawaii football when he became Star-Bulletin sports editor in 2001. It was the first of many great opportunities Paul entrusted me with, including filling this space four days a week from 2008 to 2017. Paul’s 20-year run as sports editor is remarkable by any measure.

I never wanted to let Paul down, and I feel the same way about Curtis Murayama. Even when I was at the Advertiser for a while in the late 1980s when we were all a lot younger, I always considered Curtis a professional to emulate.

Maybe that’s because the first time I saw him was at a meet when I was a track non-star from Pearl City High in the late 1970s, probably at the Punahou Relays. Curtis had no reason to interview a mediocre distance runner, so I didn’t meet him until much later. But the fact that he covered a meet I was competing in made me feel kind of big-time.

We are very fortunate to have him now. A lot of you know Curtis mostly as an NFL draftnik, but he’s been much more than that as a longtime leader in Hawaii sports media, including 11 years as Advertiser sports editor.

He always has great ideas. They include spreading column writing duties among nine distinct voices. I can tell you from personal experience that four columns a week from just one perspective is too many … but that’s just my opinion.

I’m also of the belief that if a Hawaii journalism hall of fame existed, Betty Shimabukuro would be a first-ballot inductee.

Betty was my editor before this latest position switch. For the past 18 months, I worked mostly as a writer for Crave, our weekly food section. You could say Betty planned the menu and made sure it was executed to the best of our abilities. She also knows how to season a dish created by someone else without commandeering it.

Betty makes stories better without changing the writer’s voice. Good editors make stories better, great editors make writers better. Betty is a great editor. She smoothed transitions in my stories, as well as the one from the sports department (and the one back, too.)

In a recent conversation, Betty claimed that all of my food stories included some kind of sports reference — or they did when I submitted them to her. I think she exaggerated a little bit. But yes, it was part of my transition from sports writing to food writing. And I agreed that in fairness my first return-to-sports column should include some reference to food.

Before Crave, restaurateurs supreme Peter Kim and Rick Nakashima were already two of my favorite people, and not just because they are great storytellers. Peter, the former Alabama kicker now best known for Yummy Korean BBQ, and Rick, who was a UH track coach before owning Ruby Tuesday and other eateries here, always have plenty of tales. I wish someone had called me when Anthony Bourdain came to town because he should have met these guys.

Many of us think we know a lot about food and sports. But to continue to learn, you must communicate with the real experts. If you don’t you end up as one of those guys June Jones describes this way: “He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.”

I knew I could trust Peter and Rick, so I went to them often to learn about the local food scene. They’re honest and giving of their time, even when it’s not to their benefit.

Even pre-COVID, anyone running a successful food and beverage operation knew about adapting and transition, as did winners in the sports world. Peter learned as a young immigrant student-athlete in Tuscaloosa in the early 1980s. Rick did so around the same time, making a successful switch from sprinter and jumper to teacher of sprinters and jumpers.

Rick was among those who helped Gwen Loud-Johnson to a national title in the long jump in 1984. Her name came up recently when the men’s volleyball team joined her on UH’s list of NCAA champs. Loud-Johnson told me four years ago that a key to her success was Hawaii.

“I’m in the Garden of Eden, the best place to train,” she recalled thinking while she was at Manoa.

I’ll take a leap of my own and surmise the volleyball Warriors felt the same way.

Is there any better place in the world to play volleyball? Is there any better place to be during a pandemic where you can feel at least somewhat normal and safe?

No and no.

That’s why the people of Hawaii deserve all that praise from coach Charlie Wade and the players. Yeah, the fans weren’t allowed to attend matches. But even though it had to be spread from 6 feet away and through masks, it’s obvious this team with players from all over the world felt the aloha, and it helped motivate them to stick around and give the magic a chance to happen.

It reminded me of when another UH athlete postponed his transition from college 14 years ago, for his teammates and a state that embraced him.

“I just remember looking at guys like Davone (Bess), and Ryan (Grice-Mullen) and John Estes. I felt like if I left, I wouldn’t be living up to what I came to Hawaii to do,” Colt Brennan told me in 2017. “There’s nothing I regret. When I came back my senior year, we delivered.”

Not every endeavor of every life transitions smoothly to the next. Not every comeback story has a happy ending.

Regardless, Colt Brennan, like the 2021 UH men’s volleyball team, will live forever in the hearts of Hawaii sports fans.