She was named conference Coach of the Year in 2019, when the team went 4-1-3 in the Big West. In her first season, 2011, it was 4-2-1 in league play. There were overall marks of 9-6-2 in 2016 and 9-7-1 in 2018.

But that’s it; those were all of the winning records in 13 years.

Until now.

None of the four University of Hawaii athletic directors Michele “Bud” Nagamine has worked for have insisted on more winning. Her teams have done more than enough of that in the classroom and community, and soccer is not a revenue sport.

But Nagamine was a consistent winner, as a player and coach, at every other level she’d competed at previously. She wanted that for her players, for her home state.

Perhaps, she thought, it was “time to give someone else a chance.”

She said she seriously considered resigning before the start of this season, which is her winningest at UH and still going.

“I did a lot of soul searching. I love my team so much. Maybe they needed a new voice,” Nagamine said in a phone interview Tuesday. “My contract is coming up in December. Is it even worth it?”

The answer is a resounding “yes,” as the Wahine finish up their most successful Big West campaign with a regular-season championship.

After a 5-8-3 record in 2023, Nagamine made changes in the offseason. She and her assistants — with guidance from head trainer Lyn Nakagawa, sports scientist Trevor Short, and assistant director of strength and conditioning Josh Elms — dissected and rebuilt everything, with a special focus on endurance.

“It was like having a new coach, but not having a new coach,” senior midfielder and captain Mia Foster said of the re-set.

In the end, Nagamine chose to stay on.

“I met with (athletic director) Craig Angelos and outlined for him our plan of attack,” she said. “I wanted to see it through.”

Then she tried to remain patient as UH started the season 2-6.

“We didn’t even show up for Eastern Washington,” Nagamine said of a 2-0 loss in the middle of a three-game road trip in early September. “I told the team that was not acceptable.”

Four days later, Sept. 12, the Wahine won 2-1 at Portland State.

“That road trip was hard,” Foster said. “Conference was starting soon. We talked about how we don’t want to start conference like this. That was the game where we figured out how to win. And then we just did the damned thing.”

They didn’t lose again until nine matches later, 3-1 at Cal Poly last Thursday.

UH bounced right back, clinching its first Big West regular-season championship with a 2-1 win at UC Santa Barbara on Sunday.

The Wahine (11-7-1 overall, 7-1-1 Big West) are guaranteed their first season with winning records overall and in conference since 2008, when they played in the WAC. That year, as a rookie college coach, Nagamine turned Hawaii Pacific into a 10-game winner after HPU won just three in 2007, following five state championships at her alma mater, Kamehameha.

UH hosts Long Beach State on Thursday for senior night, and then the Big West Championship Tournament next week.

Nagamine says much of the credit for the turnaround goes to assistant coaches Kaula Rowe, Daniel Saucedo, Num Tindle and Noe Kong Johnson.

All kinds of non-coaching duties fell to the staff, especially early in the season when UH hosted three tournaments at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex. The Wahine home field is about 20 miles from campus. This has always been an inconvenience, and it is now compounded by lower campus construction.

“We were so excited to have six games at home (to start the season). But then we remembered it entailed three other teams (for each tournament). Where is the visiting team gonna practice? We found ourselves practicing at the softball outfield, Mid-Pac, and parts of Ching field when it was open,” Nagamine said. “We’ve got football, band, ROTC, intramurals, and other sports to share with. The facilities people were already going nuts. Fortunately, we have friends who helped at Radford, ‘Iolani, Waialae Iki Park. Then, who takes the water and ice, and the net, for them? That’s on the staff, driving all over the creation, and with so much initiative.

“I think our team saw all the logistics, and they learned, ‘Hey, we won’t complain about anything.’ And the end result is going to be a nice, new facility on campus.”

Foster won’t get a chance to play on that new field, but she agreed that the coaches’ work ethic inspired the players.

“People see them doing extra work, and they don’t have to be asked,” she said. “They just want the best for our team and that makes us want to do the same.”

Now the Wahine have made program history and could be on the verge of more, with the same head coach who contemplated resigning a few months ago showing them the way.

“I don’t know how our team would’ve reacted,” Foster said. “I think I would have been very sad.”