WAILUKU — While he was having a blast with youngsters in Jon Garcia Gym on Saturday night, Kupono Fey knew he had work to do when he was done.

Fey, a former University of Hawaii men’s volleyball standout and recipient of the school’s 2017 Jack Bonham Award given to the top male senior student-athlete, is now an assistant coach for the No. 1-ranked Rainbow Warriors.

Fey was joined by fellow UH assistant coaches Milan Zarkovic and Chad Giesseman in a weekend of coaching and playing clinics at Baldwin High School’s on-campus gym.

“I mean, it’s a blessing, I feel like we ought to do it more,” Fey said. “I’m really thankful they invited me to come do it and super grateful for Baldwin and Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club to invite us out here. We should be doing this more in the community, on the outer islands, so I think it’s great.”

The event bringing the UH assistant coaches to the Valley Isle was organized by Baldwin and HSVC head coach Al Paschoal and Giesseman.

The UH trio were on the Baldwin hardwood floor less than 24 hours after they received their 2022 NCAA championship rings and coached the Rainbow Warriors to a sweep of Pepperdine.

This week, the two-time defending national champions will host Purdue Fort Wayne, No. 3 Penn State and No. 2 UCLA in the Outrigger Invitational.

“We’ve got like a really big tournament coming up … so we’ve got to work on the scouting report, but it’s really special to be here and it’s great to see these kids,” Fey said. “Yeah, I’m going to do work tonight for sure, work on the scouting report and some film, for sure.”

The life of the party, as it seemingly often is with UH men’s volleyball, was Zarkovic, the man who runs practice in Manoa.

“I’m having fun, if you see me here, I’m still having fun,” Zarkovic said with a wide smile. “This is one mission to come to Maui. I was speaking about their eyes when we start practice and then I’m so glad that I didn’t make mistake and at the end of practice we see the same light in the eyes.

“We should be working to come more often because you deserve that.”

When asked if doing the clinic was heartwarming, Zarkovic didn’t hesitate.

“It is, because we are Hawaii,” he said. “Before I came here my aunt told me ‘son, where you are going, that is spiritual people. So, for them, spirit is important.’ Spirit is most important, that is true.”

Zarkovic added: “I can say that I was surprised because of their height and then because of the ball control. They are back two years because of this whole sickness that is around the world. I think we have from here, one bright diamond: Colton Cowell. He is from here, Kale Spencer, we just played last week, with LIU.

“I have to say Colton played for UH and we hope to have some others (from Maui) to play for UH.”

Certainly, the UH coaches caught the attention of the 40 or so youngsters in attendance Saturday night. Paschoal said then that he expected “75 to 80” to take advantage of the opportunity in two separate sessions on Sunday.

Baldwin sophomore Natronai Anana, a libero for the Bears and nationally ranked HSVC, was all smiles on Saturday night.

“It’s awesome, it’s cool to see that they are coming to Maui because it’s usually like that we have got to fly up to Oahu to get this kind of opportunity,” Anana said. “So, it’s really awesome to see them here in our gym.”

Anana watched Fey play for the Rainbow Warriors on television and has noticed Zarkovic on the bench recently as well.

“The stuff they teach national champions, to see like what they do in their practice and they kind of give us step by step, it’s kind of like putting ourselves in their own practices,” Anana said.

Anana added that doing it with Maui Interscholastic League All-Star teammates is also special.

“Oh, so much fun, love them so much,” she said. “We go through everything together.”

Lilinoe Paschoal, the reigning MIL Player of the Year and also a Baldwin sophomore, echoed her teammate’s thoughts.

“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Paschoal said. “This is probably the closest thing I’m going to get to actually training with the UH women, so I’m going to take in all I can get right now.”

The youngest child of Al and Sheryl Paschoal recognized the value of this opportunity afforded to the Maui volleyball community.

“It means a lot,” Lili Paschoal said. “I just love that even after they went that high they can still come back and teach and they love doing it, so I’m just sucking it all in right now. And it’s just really cool to learn from these players and coaches who have been at that level.”

Giesseman, who was instrumental in delivering the weekend of knowledge to Maui, said similar weekends will be part of the future.

He points to Cowell and other former Mauians Dio Dante and Vernon Podlewski who played at UH as evidence that there is untapped talent here.

“This is really cool, this is something we wanted to do for a long time,” Giesseman said. “We actually did one in Hilo three or four weeks ago and it kind of opened our eyes, to ‘Hey, you know, it benefits to where they don’t have to travel to Oahu. We’re making it easier for them and we’re bringing our knowledge to the outer islands.’ We actually have one scheduled for Kauai next month.”

Giesseman said the choice to come here was a no-brainer.

“When Coach Al and some of the other club coaches were asking, ‘Hey, can you guys come to Maui?’ I just had to mention it once to these coaches and they were all in,” he said.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.