YOU often hear a coach telling a player, "Get your head into the game." Psychological ‘coaches’
mind to RainbowsJudy Daniels and Michael D'Andrea have helped the University of Hawaii men's basketball team do just that.
The two UH faculty members from the Department of Counselor Education have been working with the Rainbows since late January, working with the players on relaxation, visualization and motivational techniques.
The two have doctorates from Vanderbilt. Their clinical experience with teen-agers and college students from economically diverse backgrounds meshed perfectly with the diversity on the Hawaii team.
They've ended up doing everything from shagging balls in practice to soothing psyches.
"Our focus has been working with multicultural groups," said Daniels, on staff since 1990. "We put together a proposal, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of each player."
"It took about 20 minutes to go through the analysis," said D'Andrea, a faculty member since 1989. "Coach Wallace was impressed with our academic background, but also felt we had pretty good athletic analytical ability. He agreed with our analysis and we began working individually with the players.
"It was more consulting than counseling, more of a getting to know them. We followed their agendas."
The two professors had followed the team since arriving in Hawaii, becoming season ticket holders. Both are athletic and athletic-minded: D'Andrea played basketball for state champion Fairfield (Conn.) Prep and Daniels is a sub-four hour marathoner.
THE pair made two road trips with the team, one to Dallas, where the Rainbows were blown out by TCU, 126-84. Two nights later, Hawaii began a five-game winning streak with a victory at SMU.
"This is a great group of guys, very resilient," Daniels said. "After the TCU loss, I was impressed by how they recognized that it was just one bad game. They were ready to put it behind them and go onto the next game."
After the win at Fresno, Daniels and D'Andrea returned to UH to teach class. They had planned to attend the second-round game in the WAC Tournament, but the Rainbows were eliminated in the first round.
"I don't know if we would have made a difference if we had been there," D'Andrea said. "UNLV had their game going that night.
"But I do hope we've made a small contribution to their winning six of the last seven. It's been a real honor to work with this great team. I've been very impressed with the coaches, how they all have this way of promoting character development and what it means to be a team player. Not just on the UH team, but in real life."
"The team is realistically optimistic about this game," Daniels said of tonight's contest with Gonzaga. "They have lot of good energy going since their last win."
"The fans really give them a boost," D'Andrea said. "It's a very interesting reciprocity they have with the crowd. They're really committed to giving back to their fans.
"That's a unique quality and that's what has made them a special team. They really are a special family of people and it's been very gratifying to work with them."
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Sid Fernandez came home Saturday, back to his baseball roots. Fernandez tossed out the first pitch during opening-day ceremonies for Kailua American Little League at Keolu Field.
"It was fun," said Fernandez, who pitched in the World Series and All-Star Game for the New York Mets during a 17-year-career. "It brought back a lot of memories."
"El Sid" threw out more than a baseball Saturday. He threw out a challenge to all players to reach for their dreams, reminding them that his dreams began on Keolu Field.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.