26. There is a preliminary list but the reason they opened it up officially is to see if there are other qualified applicants out there.
When Ferd writes, ” reportedly including Pittsburgh’s Dan Fisher and Pepperdine’s Scott Wong” the “reportedly” is from the story I wrote for Tuesday’s paper.

I agree that the process seems weird but this is how I’ve come to see it.
ever since Shoji announced that he had cancer, people have been calling, texting, emailing him, Hall, Wade and others in the athletic department asking if Shoji was retiring and if they should apply.

By going public with the process, all those inquiries now go to the AD and not Shoji, et al. They all have other things to concentrate on, Shoji his health, Hall with both indoor and beach, and Wade with the men.

Now i don’t now if this is the reason that they did it this way but I think it makes the most sense.

as for Rose, no way is he leaving Penn State.

A national championship would be the ultimate goal, Top 5, an Elite program. Neither Wong nor Fisher meets any of these goals.

2002
4 (Villaroman, Ilustre, Watanabe, O’Brian)

2003
4 (Villaroman, Watanabe, Woolford, Carlson)

2004
4 (Watanabe, Ong, Woolford, Silva) plus Fotu and Thurlby

2005
6 (Watanabe, Ong, Woolford, Kitaguchi, Lee) plus Thurlby

2006
6 (Lee, Ong, Woolford, Kitaguchi, Duggins, Recca) plus Thurlby

2007
5 (Ka’aihue, Lee, Woolford, Kitaguchi, Duggins)

2008
5 (Hittle, Ka’aihue, Lee, Maeda, Prather) plus Brandt

2009
6 (Ka’aihue, Lee, Maeda, Robins, Kam, Griffiths)

2010
4 (Ka’aihue, Maeda, Kam, Griffiths)

2011
6 (Maeda, Griffiths, Kam, Lelepali, Kawamura, Blake)

2012
8 (Maeda, Longo, Kam, Lelepali, Kawamura, Mendoza, Ponce, Spieler)

2013
5 (Longo, Lelepali, Kawamura, Mendoza, Ponce)

2014
5 (Mendoza, Ponce, Kahakai, Guinasso, Anderson)

2015
4 (Kahakai, Ponce, Guinasso, Anderson)

2016
7 (Kahakai, Ponce, Guinasso, Anderson, Smith, Ross, Okino)

2017
7 (Kahakai, Guinasso, Anderson, Smith, Okino, Gong, Freitas)

Hawai’i NEEDS a GOOD DS to backup Kahakai or help with the passing. In case you haven’t been watching, passing has been below par. And you never know when injuries and illnesses happen. I’m thankful UH had those additional DS on the roster when Ashley Watanabe went down with injury in 2004 and her primary backup had to replace a struggling front row player.

As someone also mentioned, half of the DS in the current roster will be graduating, including the libero. That would leave just Smith, Okino and Freitas as the only true back row players. I’m not sure Ross will be training as a libero/DS, unless someone really takes ownership of Taylor’s spot.