Leilani Adolpho
Leilani Adolpho, a junior in exercise science elementary education who attended Kahuku High School, is married to Kaena Adolpho. They live in Hauula with their three children: two daughters, Aleija (6) and Bria (3), and son Keoni( 5). “I started playing volleyball for the first time when I was 8,” Adolpho said. “I learned on the beach and on grass courts because back then we couldn’t afford to get gym time, and then for the tournaments we would play on actual courts.” Adolpho carried on the proud tradition of elite volleyball talent at Kahuku High when she was named to the Oahu Interscholastic Association Second Team Eastern Division I during her senior year. She received and accepted a scholarship offer from NCAA Division I Wright State University in Ohio. “I played there for one year and then I came back home to Laie,” Adolpho said. “My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We dated long distance when I left to play volleyball in Ohio. He was playing football at New Mexico State and I was at Wright State, but then we both came back and got married and had three kids.” After they started their family, Adolpho said she never expected to play volleyball on the collegiate level again. “It had been over five years, and I had barely touched a ball. But then I ran into Coach Mona and she invited me to come back to try and play volleyball, and my husband said, ‘Yeah, why don’t you go?’ My response was, ‘Because I haven’t touched a ball in five years and I have three kids.’ But I went and tried out,” she said. Teammate Lacy Lange joked, “On her first day back, she was lifting three times more than any of the other returning players.” Adolpho gives the credit to her Crossfit training, one of her hobbies listed on her roster profile on the BYUH Athletics page. “I kept going to practices and no one had said I was cut,” said Adolpho. “Then Coach Mona offered me a scholarship, and since then I’ve been blessed to play these two seasons.”
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