The Hawaii Men's Volleyball roster was released today (October 26th) and the information recently posted around the internet were confirmed. After coming off a 16-12 overall season and placing seventh in the MPSF, the Warriors return 15 letter-winners while gaining seven and a hopeful eighth. Here are the details.
Last season the team graduated three seniors, All-Americans Sinisa Zarkovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Kolby Kanatake (Honolulu, HI), and reserve Brandon Hiehle (Redondo Beach, CA). Zarkovic was the starting outside hitter for the team all four years of his career, Kanatake played sparingly his freshman season then become one of the top liberos in UH history, while Hiehle played sparingly his senior year. This class accumulated for 30% of the kills, 17% of the aces, 43% of the digs, and 18% of the blocks. Zarkovic finished his career in the 1000+ kills club while Kanatake is in the Top 5 in digs at UH.
There were also two members of last seasons team that have not returned with those being Luke Owens (Kailua, HI) and Steven Duhoux (Newport Beach, CA). Both members did not see any playing time in 2016 but served as major parts in the depth of their position. Owens was a middle blocker and played two seasons with the team at middle blocker while redshirting his first year. At his time at Kalaheo HS, he was recruited by top 15 schools. Duhoux transferred in last season after playing two years at Orange Coast College. He redshirted in 2016 as a back-up setter behind Joe Worlsey and Jennings Franciskovic.
New additions to this team include seven freshman, three who have signed letters of intent in high school. The three who have signed are middle blocker Jack Reese (Pittsburgh, PA), middle blocker and opposite Everett Schuett (Westlake Village, CA), and outside hitter Austin Matautia (Ewa Beach, HI). The earliest commit Schuett will add depth to both positions he plays as will Reese. Matautia who is coming off a summer with the U.S. Junior National Team will look to compete for a starting role with the departure on the outside from Zarkovic.
The four other freshman are Evan LaRochelle (Hilo, HI), Rado Parapunov (Sofia, Bulgaria), Jackson Van Eekeren (Naperville, IL), and Matt Larson (San Jose, CA). Parapunov continues the tradition of international players on this team as he is one of four players outside of the United States and will compete for a starting spot as a lefty opposite. Van Eekeren will play behind Worsley and Franciskovic at setter and will most likely redshirt. LaRochelle is a 2013 graduate from Waiakea HS and has come to UH to tryout as a libero after coming from playing with a team from Air Force. Larson is a 2014 graduate and is coming off a year of his mission trip making him a freshman this season and will compete for an outside hitter spot.
Lastly is the hopeful player that many fans hope to make the roster in the upcoming 2017 season. That player being Larry "Tui" Tuileta (Honolulu, HI). It is known that Tuileta has left USC after the fall and returned home with the intention of transferring to UH. But due to lack of credits transferring over, it forced him to sit out the 2016 season and attend a community college. Based on what sources have said, he is on track to join the team for the spring season and compete as a Warrior.
There are three players listed in my commitment list that are not listed on this roster and those being Isaac Liva (Mililani, HI), Jackson Wopat (Goleta, CA), and Robert Gulvin (Goleta, CA). Liva is currently with the Warrior Football team and was first committed to UH for volleyball so my assumption is that he will be added once football season is over. Wopat and Gulvin have both transferred from Santa Barbara CC after playing with each other at Dos Pueblos HS. Both are currently at UH as students but there commitments were not fully identified by other sources. Gulvin has been seen with the other men's volleyball team members while Wopat was confirmed a student through his sister Carly's social media and his younger brother Eli's Stanford bio. There are usually players in past years who have come to UH and train with the team in the fall but leave the team before season starts.
First game of the 2016-17 school year is a preseason game this Friday (October 28th) against UC Irvine in Honolulu while they play their second game in November against Team SportConx.
Edit: (Oct. 27) A few of the players positions were changed since last checking. There is no guarantee if they are 100% correct as sometimes there are mistakes or just small changes by whoever is in charge of updating the roster. But here are some notes. Nainoa Frank is now listed as an outside hitter after starting at middle blocker the last half of the season, Iain McKellar is listed back as only an opposite, Hendrik Mol is listed only as a middle blocker, Colton Cowell is listed as a libero, Everett Schuett is only listed as a middle blocker.
