It's the time of year when people plead with their TV stations to show Rainbow Wahine volleyball and players wait breathlessly for the season that starts next week with the AVCA/NACWAA Volleyball Showcase in Nebraska.

But it would be hard to surpass the anticipation and enthusiasm of Hawai'i freshmen Nickie Thomas and Jessica Keefe. They spent last season redshirting, a common form of NCAA talent-building and torture that allows athletes to spend a year training — with no chance of playing — and still have four seasons of eligibility.

They came to fourth-ranked Hawai'i from disparate directions. Thomas, from Austin, Texas, has confidence oozing out of every inch of her 6-foot-3 middle-blocker's body. Keefe, a hitter from Ames, Iowa, preaches patience and has "had many more talks about having more confidence than I could mention, but I'm working at it."

They have worked at it together for as long as they can remember Manoa.

Keefe injured her right knee in the last basketball game she played and showed up here a year ago five months after knee surgery. She realized immediately her "mind and body" weren't ready for DI volleyball.

The same thought slapped Thomas in the side of the head the first time she got on the court. "When we started to play," Thomas recalled, "I think our first thought was, 'Oh my God, they are so much better than us.' "

The payoff for a year of thankless work comes now. UH coach Dave Shoji says both have improved "150 percent" and are in line for the three open positions (one middle, two left side) on a team that returns every starter and 14 players overall.

He calls Keefe's armswing her greatest weapon, but wants her to improve quickness and backrow skills — and her confidence issues.

"She's a good player, she's just got to get it in her head she can do it," Thomas agrees. "I've seen her get it in her head before and she plays amazing."

Shoji characterizes Thomas as lanky and athletic enough — "She has the capacity to do anything," Keefe insists — to hit above the block and penetrate over the net, but lacking consistency.

He adds, coyly, that both are "almost ready to go in a game" and need to be patient. Their reaction is a perfect snapshot of their personalities.

Thomas is adamant: "I hate it when he says that. I say no, I'm working hard today so I can get on the court as soon as possible. I don't want to be patient."

Keefe admires her teammate's "admirable" confidence, but is reticent: "There is so much talent on this team, so to be considered 'almost ready to play' is a compliment."

Together, they have helped each other walk the fine line between too much and too little confidence and patience. They have learned self-reliance out of necessity and worked out their frustration at not playing by learning to work out as if they were.

They have lifted more weights together than either cares to remember, and gone for far too many 6:30 a.m. runs with the baseball team while their teammates traveled. They viewed it as motivation for the future, which is now.

"Last year we were working to get better," Thomas says. "This year we're working to play. It's the same work ethic, just a different goal."

It is a much less elusive goal now. They can actually picture the payoff — playing time.

"The epitome of a redshirt year is selflessness, being more of a teammate," Keefe says. "You sacrifice all of your individual goals because you're not going to play, but you still work for the team. It's your job to make the team better."

NOTES

All four Showcase matches will be shown live on pay-per-view. The package can be ordered by Oceanic Time Warner Cable digital subscribers for $25 ($15 Neighbor Island). Hawai'i plays top-ranked Nebraska at approximately 3:30 p.m. HST next Friday (Aug. 26). It plays at 2 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 27) if it wins, or noon if it loses.

The opener will be shown next Friday on a delay basis for free by KFVE, at 9:30 p.m. in Hawai'i. OC16 will show UH's Saturday match, also for free on a same-day delay basis at 9:30 p.m.

Two home matches will be shown on a pay-per-view basis this season — Sept. 17 against Washington and the Oct. 8 WAC match with Nevada. Cost is $20 ($10 Neighbor Island) for each.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.