Transfer athletes come to the University of Hawai‘i for a number of reasons.
Some athletes didn’t enjoy their first choice and move in hopes of finding better luck elsewhere. Sometimes a new coaching staff can inspire a large number of junior transfers, because there is not enough time to go through the entire recruiting process.
From an athlete’s perspective, there are concerns about what choice works out best in the long run. Should they go to a smaller school to get more playing time in, or attend the Division-I powerhouse to learn in the beginning and possibly not get playing time until junior or senior year? Or should they go to the school offering a full scholarship to get the desired experience?
Junior Jenna Rodriguez, originally from Arcadia, Calif., played softball for two years at Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz., and now attends UH on a softball scholarship. At Yavapai, she helped lead the Roughriders to their first-ever National Junior College Athletic Association Championship in 2009.
Rodriguez arrived at UH with 37 credits from her previous institution, an open mind and an interest in the new culture and world around her. Hoping to ease the transition from high school to a four-year university, Rodriguez, who is working toward a communications degree, decided to first attend junior college.
“If I would have went to a university first,” she said, “I would have done horrible the first year trying to adjust from high school.”
However, she sorely misses her home visits during weekends.
“I feel stuck here,” Rodriguez said. “So many things have to go right just to be able to go home; my parents wanting me to come home, the money issue for flights, and softball make it hard.”
At least a five-hour flight away from its closest opponent, UH provides its athletes with a difficult decision to make. On an island, some students see coming to UH as a chance to get away, while others see it as a form of imprisonment.
Some athletes also make the decision to transfer out, struggling with the distance from home and wanting to go somewhere closer.
keeping up
Rodriguez said one of the difficulties she faces here compared with Yavapai is undivided attention from professors who care about students’ learning. For this reason, she feels that, to a certain extent, she got more out of her education at her junior college. At Yavapai, Rodriguez explained, projects and assignments went into detail about the material presented.
And with strict NCAA requirements, UH athletes can find it hard to excel in school while still having to compete at a high level.
“The difference is instead of having three or four NCAA All-Americans like I did on my team, most everyone is at an All-American level,” Rodriguez said. “The competition is more intense, and everyone is playing Division I because they love the game. At the junior-college level, not everyone is like that.”
However, some of the athletes don’t finish their run at UH; they drop out in hopes of going professional. What UH offers these athletes is the option to come back and finish their degree.
According to Jennifer Matsuda, director of Student-Athlete Academic Services, UH has an agreement with Kapi‘olani Community College that allows KCC’s students to attend UH classes.
“This is to help them smooth the transition from junior-college coursework to the university level,” Matsuda said.
UH is working on agreements with other local community colleges to provide more students with this alternative.
The role of junior-transfer athletes is vital to the success of UH’s athletics department; Rodriquez said athletes who went first to a junior college shouldn’t be underestimated:
“They’re no less of a player than any other athlete that went to a Division-III, -II, or -I university right out of high school.”
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