College soccer: Lady Vulcans get leading scorer back

Abcde (AB-suh-dee) Zoller, in the first class of University of Hawaii at Hilo recruits three years ago by former soccer director Lance Thompson, led the offensively challenged squad in 2015 with four goals and an assist and at the end of the season, she said her goodbyes, shed a tear for her teammates and was prepared to move on.

“I was always planning to go to grad school somewhere,” Zoller, a Kamehameha Schools—Kapalama grad said after graduating in three years in Hawaiian Studies, “so when the season ended, it was sad. I didn’t have anything lined up and at one point I was even thinking about med school.

“The longer it went, the more I kept thinking, ‘I love it here, I love this Hawaiian Studies program, it’s something I really believe in,’ so I began thinking maybe I should just stay.”

First time head coaches in the NCAA are told to expect the unexpected and the new UHH soccer director had one of those surprises fall in his lap just the other day.

“I’m ecstatic to have her back, it’s a huge thing for our team,” said Gene Okamura, the former assistant who was appointed UHH director of soccer when Thompson resigned earlier this month. “Her maturity isn’t just in the classroom, she dedicated herself when she got here, she’s faster and stronger than she was and, for as tiny as she is, she plays like she’s 6-feet tall.”

Okamura probably wishes he could have this kind of surprise once a week, but that isn’t going to happen. There is only one graduated senior who led the Vulcans in scoring last year and made an about face and decided to come back for her final year of eligibility.

Events began tumbling into place. Zoller was at a scholastic dinner and sat next to someone involved a grad school summer intensive that prepares students to teach indigenous Hawaiian language. She was two weeks late to enroll but somebody believed she could make it up and get through it.

Zoller is taking classes six days a week in a grad school program that requires an investment of 9-to-12 hours a day over the summer, but that’s just part of her routine. She also tutors two students, assists in coaching to AYSO youth teams and she works at Ho’ola Farms, an environmentally friendly, alternative farming practices that is a training center for military vets to help them transition into civilian life.

And now, you can ad leader of the UHH women’s soccer team to the list.

Zoller is barely 5-feet tall, but she plays fearlessly as a natural ‘9’ in the tactical formation, the position reserved for the primary goal scorer.

“Everything a team does, they way they form an attack, who attacks, how they attack, it all has to start with a No. 9,” Okamura said. “Every team in soccer builds around that player, so to have her come back and not have to spend a lot of time trying to find someone for that role? It’s a really big deal.

“She is the one who can receive a pass, turn and take someone on, she can make those runs because she’s going to be quicker than most everyone she plays against; it gives us a big step forward even before we have our first practice, we know we’re a better team.

For Zoller, it’s all falling into place.

“I wasn’t planning to be back,” she said, “but things just kept happening that all made sense in some way, it was a lot of synchronicity that made me think it was meant to be this way.

“I just want to be in shape physically, I want to be really ready to go at the first practice,” she said. “I can feel the passion building already and I just want to let it come to me, feel it and get at an energy level where my teammates can feel it too. If we come together we can have a great season.”

Oh, about that first name? Yes, there’s a story, but not much of one.

“People ask and I wish I had a cooler story,” Zoller said. “My mom said she thought about it, thought it would be cool and that’s why she named me.”

Names come and go. Fortunately for Okamura, this one came, went and came back again.