Eight years after leaving the Big Island for high school on Oahu, Tai Manu-Olevao finds herself at the crossroads, once again.
It was like this for the senior at UH-Manoa when she first moved to Oahu where her older brothers John and Sam lived, as well as her older sister, Poli. Her brothers attended Kohuku but Tai enrolled at Punahou and began a brilliant high school athletic career that included three league championships and one state title in volleyball.
Back then, she made the right decision.
“I hadn’t really settled on volleyball,” Manu-Olevao said this week after a match with her team A Mothers Prayer at the 59th annual Haili Volleyball Tournament at the Hilo Civic, “but I always liked volleyball, it was all around me growing up.