Sunshine Misa-Uli is living out a fairy tale, complete with being crowned as a queen.

Misa-Uli, a 2004 Farrington graduate, was named Barton County (Great Bend, Kan.) Community College's 2006 Basketball Homecoming Queen Saturday.

"We had a game that day," she said. "We blew out the team by 20 points, and I had to run to the locker room and change really quick. I wore my Samoan dress, a pulu tasi, and I wore my flower to bring in the Hawaiian theme.

"Everybody else had little formal dresses."

Candidates were nominated by athletic teams and campus organizations. The student body picked six men and six women as finalists. The finalists met with an advisory committee, and votes by both the committee and the student body were combined to pick the winner.

The king and queen were announced in between the women's and men's basketball games Saturday.

"I was like, 'Wow,' " Misa-Uli said. "I wasn't even worried about it, I was worried about the game."

Along with the accolades bestowed upon her by her schoolmates, she's racking up honors on the court as well.

The sophomore forward leads the team in rebounding (7.3 per game) and is second in scoring (11.5).

As a middle blocker on Barton's volleyball team, she was named a National Junior College Athletic Association All-America second-team selection after averaging 4.32 kills per game, good for seventh in the nation. Her nearly two blocks a contest were eighth nationally. She was also the Jayhawk West Conference Most Valuable Player.

She's also a member of the track and field team.

And she'll soon realize a longtime goal when she signs with a Division I school to play both volleyball and basketball.

"It's overwhelming," said Misa-Uli, who is taking a recruiting trip to Louisiana Tech Friday.

She is also being recruited by Saint Joseph's (Philadelphia), Florida State, Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico State, New Mexico, Tennessee State, Central Florida, Texas-San Antonio, Houston, Oklahoma State, Southern Miss, Alabama Birmingham, Pacific (Calif.), Wyoming, Missouri-Kansas City, Tulsa, Southeast Missouri and Arkansas-Little Rock.

"A lot of them want me for both (basketball and volleyball)," Misa-Uli said. "At first, they were saying it would be hard for me to play more than one sport. When they found out a lot of schools were saying I could play both, they were jumping on the bandwagon, saying I could play both."

She will decide what school she wants to sign with after her basketball season on the advice of coach Lane Lord, who told her to wait for regional and national competition when more coaches would see her play.

Her parents, Ova and Tapuni, want her to return home, but she still remembers feeling snubbed by the University of Hawai'i when she was looking to play after high school.

"I think so highly of LaTech, because they play Hawai'i," she said. "My pride was crushed when they told me to walk on. I'm past that now. I'm going to sign with the best program for me."

She didn't get many offers to play volleyball or basketball out of high school, but Barton offered financial aid.

"I was getting looks," she said. "A lot of schools say (now), 'If we knew about you, we would have come out there.' I tell so many schools, you should look at Hawai'i players."

Her volleyball success led to more attention for basketball, her first love, similar to the way she gained attention as a high school hoops player when she won the state championship in wrestling.

"I'm so blessed, everything is falling into place," Misa-Uli said. "I knew all this hard work was going to come through. I'm happy, because I figured I would go to JUCO and work my way up. Everything I planned is working out."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.