Four hours.
About the time it takes to drive around the Big Island, a 300-mile journey where one ends up in the same place as one started.
Four hours.
About the time it takes to drive from Washington, D.C., to Morgantown, W.Va., a 207-mile drive where, in this case, someone ended up in the same place he started.
U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele (D-HI-02) took a road trip on Nov. 19, the final destination being the “most beautiful building in West Virginia,” the WVU Coliseum. It was Aloha Friday as well as the aloha sendoff for the eight seniors on the Mountaineers volleyball team coached by seventh-year head coach Reed Sunahara.
What’s a few hundred miles to go see another Hilo boy? Especially another Hilo High alum?
And, especially when there’s another Hilo High graduate in the car: Master Gunnery Sgt. Jay Michael Auwae (USMC-Ret.) along for the ride.
About 100 miles out of Morgantown, the two put a local spin on the drive. “Think of it as Hilo to Ocean View,” they agreed. “Not too bad.”
It ended up being great.
Sunahara thought that Kahele and Auwae were coming to show support for a fellow Viking.
“Kai said he was going to come down, see our senior night, be there for me,” Sunahara said in a recent phone call. “Plus, I wanted him to talk to the team, share his experiences. So we set it up.”
Little did Sunahara know that Kahele was arriving with more than a Hilo maile lei for the head coach and other lei for the assistants. There also was the inaugural certificate of congratulations from the newly formed U.S. House Volleyball Caucus, which is co-chaired by Kahele, a former University of Hawai’i volleyball player, (1995-97) and Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), who played volleyball at Georgetown (1991-94).
“There are several members in the House who played collegiate volleyball, including Jared Huffman (D-CA-02),” Kahele said of the three-time All-American at UC Santa Barbara. “There’s caucuses for football, basketball and baseball … I played in their games. Why not volleyball?
“My goal is this to be bi-partisan, create fellowship and the opportunity to connect with USA Volleyball. We want to recognize the volleyball teams at the different collegiate level, be a different organization that helps to perpetuate the sport.”
Sunahara was the perfect person to honor to literally get the ball rolling.
“Growing up in Hilo as a kid, you always heard about Reed, he was the best volleyball player to come out of Hilo,” Kahele said. “The last time I saw him was when he was inducted into the (Big Island Interscholastic Federation) Hall of Fame (2018). We talked about volleyball and how he had stayed connected to the sport.
“The certificate of congratulations is beyond recognizing his 400 wins. It’s a testament to all the lives he has touched, and there has to be more than 1,000. There’s not too many who have achieved a national championship as a player and a coach.
“To me, Reed Sunahara has always been larger than life.”
The 6-foot-4 Sunahara was a three-sport all-star at Hilo High, all-state in basketball and baseball, and all-league in volleyball, a sport he first tried “for fun” as a sophomore. As a pitcher, he was part of USA Baseball’s goodwill team that played in Japan in 1981, right after his high school graduation, and right before he enrolled at UCLA.
Sunahara helped the Bruins to three national championships (1982-84), was twice named an All-American, before a devastating motorcycle accident impacted his pro playing career. Seven surgeries later, he was on the UCLA bench as a coach, and the Bruins won three more titles (’87, ’89, ’93).
The coaching ride turned to the women’s game where he was at Toledo, Cincinnati, Buffalo and — since 2015 — West Virginia. Although the Mountaineers lost on Senior Night, 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 15-11, they regrouped to finish out Big 12 play with two wins at TCU last week, their records of 19-9 overall and 8-8 in conference good enough to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
WVU faces Illinois on Friday at the subregional hosted by defending national champion Kentucky.
The at-large bid is part of the volleyball culture Sunahara has been building at West Virginia.
“We’re trying to be more of a family,” he said. “Morgantown is a lot like Hawaii. The people are genuine and we’re the only game in town. The athletes are like rock stars. I’ve been treated well.”
On Nov. 19, the Mountaineers saw the volleyball culture that only Hawaii has shared, courtesy of an impromptu Hilo High reunion. There was Sunahara (’81), Auwae (’88), Kanahele (’92) and Viking baseball coach Baba Lancaster (’87), as well as Sunahara’s sister Joan and husband Warren Chong, who flew in from the Big Island.
“This was really full circle,” Reed Sunahara said. “Kai’s father (the late Gilbert) was our state senator when I was growing up and he would come to our high school games.
“It’s great to see Kai represent Hawaii like he has. He’s doing great things for the state and, more importantly, for the people of Hawaii.”
Before the match, Kahele presented the lei and certificate in the locker room and spoke to the team.
“I told them how proud we were to be able to present the inaugural certificate from the volleyball caucus to him,” Kahele said. “I spoke about my senior night 25 years ago. And that it’s not so much about the wins and losses but about the lifetime experiences they’ll take into the next chapters of life.”
It ended up being an 11-hour round trip for Kahele and Auwae, a trip summed up perfectly by John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
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Reach Cindy Luis cindy3luis@gmail.com
