By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

"She's physical. That's something they've been lacking big time. You can't play internationally and not be physical." Deitre Collins, Former UH player and Olympian

Heather Bown spent two memorable seasons terminating volleyball rallies for the University of Hawai‘i. Veronica Lima vividly remembers Bown’s broad strokes - the slide sets slammed in front of the 10-foot line and the stuffs buried into the Taraflex floor.

But Bown the enforcer is not what Lima longs for in this first post-Bown Wahine season.

"I miss her as a person," Lima says. "She was a good friend of mine; she is a good friend of mine. She is always happy, always smiling, always taking care of people. She is always thoughtful.

"People see her as an intimidator just because she is big and strong and hitting the ball hard, but she is a sweetheart. Even on the court. She is a little girl that has Winnie the Pooh all over her room. She is just a sweetheart that happened to grow big and strong without growing up."

USA Volleyball isn’t starting Bown because she is a sweetheart, but because she is a force. Bown is big, strong and quick, a rare trifecta every team covets.

"She’s physical," says former UH All-American Deitre Collins, Team USA’s starting middle in the 1988 Games. "That’s something they’ve been lacking big time. You can’t play internationally and not be physical.

"If you look at Cuba, they’re athletic. Russia is big and Japan and Korea are quick. The USA can be quick and big; that’s the type of athletes they have now. Heather is an extremely mobile big kid."

That rare gift was unwrapped only after long hours of practice, in a sport Bown took up so late no college seriously recruited her. UH coach Dave Shoji calls her "still kind of a pup out there," but she has her papers.

With Danielle Scott and Tara Cross Battle back, Bown isn’t compelled to power the offense as she was here, only pose a threat and block balls. She admits her game won’t appear radically different, but every skill is fine-tuned. She is more comfortable reading savvy setters and has cut her mistakes dramatically - crucial in the rally-scoring international game.

Bown’s first international competition came at the 1999 World University Games. She didn’t start. Last December, days after lifting Hawai‘i into its second straight regional and leading the country in blocking, she left school two semesters short of graduation for a national team tryout. Four months later, she was starting.

She was also stunned.

"I was praying, ‘Could I please just be the 12th person on the bench??’ " Bown recalls. "The transition was tough. I don’t think I’ve made it yet, but obviously the coaches see something. I still struggle with my inner self. I don’t feel I’m to the point where I’m starting middle for the national team, not yet. I’ve got a lot to learn.

"But it’s been fun. I’ve had a blast learning. Whether I start or not in Sydney, I have enough under my belt now to at least fake it until I make it."

There is a rotation where Bown, and Kerri Walsh and Logan Tom - starters for Stanford last season - are in the front row together. The first time Bown saw it, she remembers thinking, "This is insane."

It paints a vivid picture of how desperate this team was a year ago. Now, desperation is history. There is finally a rhythm and a convergence, and the force is with them.

A medal in Sydney would be an upset, but the draw is kind and the U.S. is coming off its best performance in more than four years. If it can keep from taking itself out of games ...

"This team hasn’t beat anybody very often," admits Collins, who spent the summer at the national training center. "They are definitely underdogs. They will have to play their best for two weeks, which they haven’t done. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

"It’s the same as when I played in ’88. They started over again. The only difference is, this team is physical. I wasn’t physical ... it was me and Kim Oden in the middle and we moved the balls around and were good blockers. Heather and Danielle pound the ball."

Wait until they out-grow Winnie the Pooh.

"Robyn has a flat-out competitiveness that you cannot teach. Put Robyn in a game and she's a different person." Deitre Collins, Now coach at Nevada-Las Vegas

Volleyball has always brought out the best in Robyn Ah Mow. While outsiders find her passionately private and painfully shy, teammates see something dramatically different.

At the University of Hawai‘i, it was Ah Mow who organized the tailgates, put together beach outings and generally served as social director for the Wahine from 1993 to ‘96. She ended her collegiate career in the NCAA Championship match in Cleveland, fervently trying to will an over-matched, flu-weakened team to a title.

Teammates can’t shut her up.

"She communicates well," understates Olympic teammate Heather Bown, who missed Ah Mow by a year in Manoa but now thrives on her soft sets. "She’s very competitive and fiery. We need someone like her who is going to take charge and kick it into gear."

That is precisely what Ah Mow accomplished last month. After leaving her on the bench behind Brigham Young’s Charlene Tagaloa most of her international career, Team USA coach Mick Haley finally answered Ah Mow’s plea to play - mumbled a million times under her breath since she returned to the national team 20 months ago.

Without warning, he started her at the Grand Prix against Korea, No. 5 in the world. The 10th-ranked U.S. won in four.

"She always calls," recalled her mother, Lovina. "Most times she says she did the standard subbing. This time, she said she played a lot. Without getting too excited about it, I eventually found out she started. I was really excited."

Ah Mow started the next match. Before a boisterous Chinese crowd, Team USA defeated No. 4 China. It was the first time this quadrennium the United States had beaten China, or any top-four team.

"Robyn was on fire," Bown recalls.

Robyn was where she should have been all along, according to Deitre Collins. The former Olympian and UH All-American now coaches at UNLV, and spent her summer with the national program while guiding the youth national team.

"Everybody in America knows I felt like Robyn should be playing," Collins said. "Charlene has made huge strides, but Robyn has a flat-out competitiveness that you cannot teach. Put Robyn in a game and she’s a different person. I’d go on her back anywhere.

"She plays at such a high level mentally. I say just let her play, she’ll find a way to win. He finally saw it, thank God."

Haley hadn’t truly felt Ah Mow’s magic for himself until the Grand Prix. In practices, her quiet demeanor can come off as nonchalance and her innate ability to carry a team _ and make everyone around her better _ is not nearly as obvious as in games.

Ah Mow had been with Haley in 1997, and left the program unhappy and unhealthy. She came home for more than a year, and missed the game immensely. She called Haley at the end of 1998 and asked to return. He questioned her commitment. She convinced him she was sincere.

Since returning, she had been hanging in there as a backup to Tagaloa and Long Beach State’s Misty May, before May moved to the beach game. Now, Haley clearly has a choice, and a choice to make.

Ah Mow and Tagaloa are relentless workers and close friends, but their styles are as different as their alma maters. Tagaloa is textbook and reliable, a bit bigger and better at the net. Ah Mow is whimsical and creative, more adept at isolating hitters and a sometimes-astonishing defender.

The United States opens against China late Friday. To reach the quarterfinals, it needs to finish in the top four of its six-team pool, which includes No. 29 Kenya and No. 27 Australia.

"We’re trying to get in the top eight and get out of our pool," Ah Mow says. "From there, we can make the top four."

That would put the United States in a medal match. Suddenly, the dream is a realistic one, and rests on the tips of her fingers.