From "Hawai'i, Lord?" to her upcoming book "Let's Go 'Bows," Melody Toth is in her final days at Manoa.

Her Rainbow career has lasted 30 years, through four national championships and more chicken-skin moments than she can count in her detailed journals. Those have led her to write "Let's Go 'Bows," a look back over three decades of Hawai'i's unique bond with its Rainbows, to be published next year.

Toth has never officially dug a volleyball, set a pick or dropped a bunt, but her impact on the University of Hawai'i athletic program is indelibly etched in thousands of student-athletes.

There have been "at least a million" taped ankles and more midnight phone calls than Toth cares to remember, not that she regrets even one. She has no children of her own, but has nurtured thousands of young adults as a UH athletic trainer.

"Most of the kids here, from the Mainland or foreign kids, I've been their mom for four years," Toth said. "When they are puking their guts out in the middle of the night, it's 'Oh, let's call Mel.' "

When she was honored at the 35th anniversary of Rainbow Wahine sports last month, Toth received a standing ovation. She still gets calls from "kids" of the 1970's, '80's and '90's, and their parents, to say hi, or thank her, or maybe tell her "now I get it."

"We were always with her, she took care of us," former Rainbow Wahine volleyball All-American Tita Ahuna recalled. "We'd need to go to the store, get food, when we got sick and injured, when we just needed someone to talk to, Mel was always there."

LEAVES THIS WEEK

Many of those Toth grew closest to are now on the Mainland, which will make her next transition simpler. She leaves Hawai'i this week to move back to Indiana, where she will be caregiver for her parents. Ultimately, she hopes to end up at Camp Kanesatake in Pennsylvania, where she spent memorable summers with her church youth group 40 years ago.

"It's just an incredible place," Toth said. "It's where I got in touch with who I am. I had really good spiritual contact with God up there. It's someplace near and dear to my heart. ... It'll be like I'm a kid going to camp again, but now I'm a counselor."

She also hopes to work with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, as the one "given a ticket to Budapest to test Marion Jones," or "Sydney to test Michael Phelps." It is a natural progression from her past work with international athletes, and close connection with Ralph Hale and the late Allen Richardson.

Both doctors were intimately involved with Olympic athletes in water polo, aquatics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and drug testing. They were instrumental in helping Toth create the Rainbow Wahine athletic training program and getting her involved with Olympic sports beyond that. Donnis Thompson, UH's first senior woman administrator, is Toth's third mentor.

"Those three, you couldn't ask for anything more," Toth said. "They were class acts and they knew where they wanted to take the program."

ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Toth was willingly along for the wild Rainbow Wahine ride, with big plans even back then, after a tentative start.

She left San Jose State in 1977 after UH's fulltime position opened while her job in California was being altered. "I went, Hawai'i, Lord?" Toth recalled.

Her answer came swiftly and soon Thompson was picking her up at the airport and driving to Manoa via not-so-scenic Nimitz Highway. They entered the UH quarry from the back (Varsity) gate and Toth saw her new "office" below the old, leaky, condemned pool.

"I went, 'Oh my God, this is Hawai'i, you've got to be kidding me,' " Toth recalled. "Then I went to McDonald's and they had rice this and rice that. I thought, 'Don't you have potatoes here?' I thought about getting out, but God wanted me here for some reason."

Thompson hooked her up with Hale, who later brought in Richardson and asked Toth, "What do you need to make this place really rock?"

His first move was to buy her an ice machine bigger than a bread basket. Hale, Richardson and Thompson ultimately put together a Division I training program with Toth that was basically full-service 24/7. And, in 1985, they helped create an athletic training curriculum affiliated with the medical school.

"Ralph was dean of the School of Medicine so he could help get the curriculum going," Toth said. "Whatever we needed donated he got donated, and what didn't get donated Allen donated. The best thing was, both donated their time. I had Allen for Monday night clinics and game nights and Ralph for Thursday night clinics, so we had everything from A to Z — orthopedic to gynecological, psychiatric to nutrition ... They just made it happen for me."

Once, Toth called Richardson in the middle of the night from Japan and he "walked her through" how to set Sue Hlavenka's dislocated elbow over the phone. Much more than once, she called Hale from the Mainland and laid out symptoms so he could come up with a conclusion and have a prescription waiting at an all-night pharmacy.

GREAT MEMORIES

Those are hardly the only memories she will miss.

Toth points to the four Rainbow Wahine volleyball national championships and the 2002 WAC basketball championship as her high points. The Indiana native still gets emotional when she remembers new Rainbow head coach Bob Nash giving her the "last cut" of the net the night of that WAC title. And, she feels like a compelling part of those volleyball titles, particularly the last one with "a goofy bunch of kids" who got her home for Christmas when they won the 1987 final four in Indianapolis.

"Winning a national championship has got to be an all-time high," Toth said. "When you can hold up your finger and go No. 1, even though you're not playing ... I was part of those teams. It's an awesome feeling to be part of a winning team.

"And that was just a perfect end to that era with those (1987) kids. Even now, they all come look me up. And their parents are all great."

Ahuna affirms Toth's role: "Mel was an integral part of that, definitely. They say the fans are our seventh person on the court, but Mel was always there. I couldn't imagine our team without Mel because she was always there, always."

RELENTLESS ENTHUSIASM

Toth worked with volleyball and coach Dave Shoji the first 24 years of her career here. He appreciated her relentless enthusiasm and gift for getting the most out of every player. At 50, Toth decided to see more of the athletic landscape and switched to share Riley Wallace's last six years with men's basketball. She also started thinking about retirement, weary of the strange hours and tough travel — and with the encouragement of her father, who saw too many people die while still working in the steel mills.

At this point, Toth's wisdom goes far beyond dislocations and hot and cold compresses. She is comfortable with herself, after 30 years of remarkable Manoa experiences and a career she would not have changed for all the basketball nets in Indiana.

"I love this job," she said. "I guess because there are no professional sports for women, this is as close as I could get to being with professional sports day in and day out. I get to live, eat and drink sports everyday of my life and get paid for it. And, I get to help people get better. I couldn't think of a better job for myself."

In that, she is not alone.

LET’S GO ’BOWS

From the Journal of Trainer Mel

Dec. 11, 1987

It's hard to believe that the whole season comes down to this last game. Fitting though, University of the Pacific and John Dunning. The last two years they have stopped us cold in regionals. They have gone on to win the national championship, back-to-back, not an easy feat. We did it in '82 and '83 but it is not that easy. Now tonight, one game, winner take all. ...
The early legend of the University of Hawai'i says that if there is a rainbow over Manoa Valley on game day, the Rainbows will win the game. All day the sun had been shining, but we didn't care, rainbow over Manoa or not, tonight there was no turning back for the four seniors and me. Tita (Ahuna), Suzanne (Eagye), Mahina (Eleneki) and Diana (Jessie) had promised me an early Christmas present. They told me all season long that they would get me home for Christmas. Tonight, would Santa come early?
The game had sold out early. I think the occupancy of Otto Klum Gym is somewhere around 1,800 people. For most of our games, I believe there to be around 2,000 people. On the really big games, maybe 2,200 screaming fans. To this day, I can't believe that we never stopped a game to take care of a fan who died of heat stroke...
Just before I walked into the gym I took one more look into Manoa Valley. I smiled. Manoa Mist had set in, sending a double rainbow across the valley. ...
These four seniors were 126-33 in their four years. That's quite an impressive record. All the traveling, including two trips to Japan and 19 road trips, have bonded these girls like no other team that I have been with.
Everyone was on their feet (after UH won the first game 15-11), pompons and towels waving everywhere. The noise level was deafening. What an incredible feeling. ... The heat was evident by the lack of dryness on the players' jerseys and shorts, as well as the shirts of all the fans in Klum. The floor wipers were out after every play to try and wipe up the sweat that was all over the floor. The floor in Klum never looked so clean. ...
(At 13-9 in Game 2) Mahina serves again and the ball is set to Cathey Scotlan. One-on-one with Teee, are you kidding me? Lights out, 14-9. Only one more point now. UOP hits long! Point, Game 2 Hawai'i. ...
(In Game 3), you could feel the Pacific tide turning slowly, 1-8. All of a sudden we couldn't buy a point. ... The crowd didn't let up. They refused to quit on their team. "Let's Go 'Bows, Let's Go 'Bows." Then it happened. A block, a kill, 5-8 ... The match is over 2 hours old now and it's only midway in the third game. Somehow the Rainbows have held UOP scoreless while we've crept back in the game. ... (At 14-12) Tears in my eyes, I can feel it, the whole gym can feel it. Teee serves for game point, the ball goes to the middle, Suzanne Eagye is there with the block. The ball hits her hands and slowly rebounds like a perfect arc of a rainbow and floats down. It sinks slowly towards the backline. Freeze frame, every mouth in the crowd is open in anticipation. UOP can't move, the crowd is silent, you could hear a pin drop. The ball lands in. Dave jumped so high, I thought he would hurt himself ...
The crowd lingered. No one wanted to leave despite the heat and humidity. It was their moment too. They deserved to be a part of the celebration. This was Hawai'i's team.
The team took their victory lap and gathered in the center of the floor. With one big 'Bows' mahalo they sent the crowd home with memories of what could be. Could it get any better than this? I hope so, in one week in Indianapolis for the finals, it could get a little better than this.
As you all know, it did get better. The next week, in Indianapolis, Ind., the Rainbow Wahine went on to win their fourth national championship.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.