1993 Final Four Reunion


Favorite Quotes

"It's the hard that makes it great!".....Stephanie

"Win in three - with motrin" ....... Chris

"The key to this match is __________ & ____________."

(you guessed it -- passing & serving) -- Carol

Also "The Road to the Final Four" we wrote & drew on the board in all of our pre-game meetings. -- Carol

"POINT, COUGARS!" I almost forgot about our fans hollering this out every time we scored! -- Carol

"We're gonna win!!" Chris and I both looked at each other after the 3rd point of the first set of the UCLA game and said this in unison. It still makes me giggle. Laura


Favorite Memories

I remember being in Hawaii. We were on our way back to Laie after being in Honolulu. Char had to go to the bathroom so bad that she had to get out of the van to go - about 5 miles before we got there.


I have a couple of funny memories from Hawaii too. It seems like we spent a lot of time when we were there driving from the North Shore to the city. We had to travel through a really long tunnel and of course we all would scream through the entire length!

Also on one of those drives we started having a conversation about what movie stars we had crushes on. Mine was Tom Cruise (until I discovered how short he was!), Shauna's was Kenny Rogers, and Lori's was Johnny Depp.

Not sure if this was the 1993 year or not, but it was pretty funny when our huge vans would come to stoplights on road trips and we would all rock the van back and forth!
-- Carol

We were in Hawaii and driving back for the 10th time from the other side of the island and we were talking about our favorite singers (sorry it's more pc now to say musical artists). I said something to the effect of "if I were on a desert island and could have only two people, it would be Kenny Rogers (1st record I ever got) and Rod Stewart (boy, does this date me)! Anyway, Carol said her favorites and then Marianne said "If I were on a desert island I would want to be with Brad Pitt." I said, "Marianne, he is so much shorter than you," and she said "Who'd be standing up!" We all laughed like crazy and I still laugh every time I think of that. - Shauna

One of my other memories was of being on a plane to somewhere and someone asked if anyone had some Motrin. There were like 8 or 9 of us who all said "yes I have some," and then started to pull out our bottles. -Shauna

And on the flip side of that I remember coming back from the Final Four on the airplane and Chris coming up to each of us and telling us to hand over our prescriptions. I didn't quite understand it until a few days later when I came in and told her that I was having horrible pain in my back. Chris told me that I have always had that pain in my back (because of my SI joint from scoliosis) and that I normally just lived with it, but for the past few months hadn't felt it because of the Motrin. She wouldn't give me anything for my back pain and told me that I'd have to learn to live with the pain again. I thought it a bit of a "cruel and unusual punishment" at the time, but after a few weeks got used to it again.

I'd like to dedicate our Final Four season to that little pill we all loved so much and Chris for helping to control substance abuse! - Shauna

One of my favorite memories was at the Joseph Smith Building, meeting with the apostles after going to the final four. I remember someone (okay I can't remember if it was Elder Perry or Elder Maxwell - my memory isn't as good as it used to be) was talking about how Elder Nelson had been watching the game and started calling others saying, "Our girls are on TV." That comment always stuck with me. I realized that we were representing something more than ourselves and the school. Steph

I have so many fun memories of the Hawaii trip -- it seems like it was really a great kick- off for the 1993 season!

--Arriving at the gym in Hawaii for our first match and thinking we were late, because there were tons of Hawaiian fans already in the stands.
--Our matches being on LIVE TV in Hawaii.
--After we had played our 2 matches and got to spend the day at Waikki Beach, people on the beach recognized us from being on TV. We all thought this was so cool, because we didn't have anything on us to identify us BYU volleyball players. -- Carol

Monday, September 29, 2008

Johnson-Tagaloa Family






































Hi all,

Most of you I have not seen for many years. I am still trying to see if it will work for me to come out for the reunion.

I am living in Lincoln with my 3 beautiful children. Kaipo is a Sophomore in High School and will be 16 in March which means he will start driving and dating. That just seems crazy. He honestly was just a baby as we see in one of these pics. He plays football and soccer and he also is in show choir, choir and theatre.

VaiLin-Gabi just turned 6 in August and is in 1st grade and just loves school. She is my 'momma's girl' and really misses me during the day. She is definitely an athlete and loves all sports although she is not involved in any organized sport right now.

My Sydney is 4 and in preschool. Like Kaipo she has the musical talent and I'm sure her career will have something to do with fashion.

As for myself; way too much personal drama!!!! But to sum up the last 15 years of volleyball for me; After BYU I played professionally in Switzerland for 1 year. Shauna stayed with me for a bit there while she was playing in Europe too.

Then I joined the National Team and lived in Colorado Springs for 5 years during that time I was fortunate to play in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. I injured myself right before the Olympics but had already signed a contract in Italy for a year so I thought might as well go and see how it turns out.

When I got back from Italy I had surgery on my wrist and moved to Michigan where I started coaching in the Professional League. This would buy me some time to see if my wrist would heal to know if I would be able to play again, or hang up the jersey and continue coaching. I did that 1 season and the league folded right before the 2nd season. It was time to hang up the jersey (against my will) and I got a phone call from the University of Nebraska to coach and that all fell in to place rather quickly. I went there in March of '03 and coached for 4 seasons. The '06 season we won the National Championship in our own backyard. That experience brought back many memories of our '93 BYU team of course.

I resigned from the University in Feb '07 because I was again a single mom and couldn't juggle the two full time jobs of working and being a mother. I know I made the right decision of staying home with my children. They bring absolute joy to me.

We are all doing very well and currently living in Lincoln, Nebraska still. I work out of my home and could live anywhere but I really love the midwest. That's strange coming from a Vegas girl and not even knowing there was such a place as the midwest when I was growing up.

I travel the nation all summer doing my own vb camps and also some for USA Volleyball. During the year I work for a recruiting company which I help get vb players information to college and I also distribute a functional beverage called MonaVie.

This is definitely longer than what I planned but it's what's been going on in my life. And as I mentioned, some of you I haven't seen for 15 years.

It is great reading about everyone and their wonderful families. Hopefully I will be able to make it! Thanks for the wonderful memories!!!

Charlene




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2 comments:

The Lewis Family said...

Charlene,
Your kids are so grown up. What a great family.
Michele

October 1, 2008 at 7:41 PM
1993 BYU Volleyball Team said...

Hey Char,

Toma has grown so much. Wow! Despite the hardships you may have been through, you seem to have a good grip on your life and taking very good care of your kids. Good for you. It's good to hear that you are doing well. You went MIA for a while there. I often wondered how you were and what you were up to, until I learned you were coaching at Nebraska. No doubt the championship title they received brought back memories of '93. It did me when I coached at HPU and took the championship title for NCAA Division II. You take care of yourself and let us know if you need anything. I'm in Samoa by the way. If you ever want to come visit to show the kids their roots, let me know. Alofa atu to you and the kids.

Muki

October 2, 2008 at 12:07 PM

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