Erik Shoji, the libero of the USA team, and his family personify the title ‘Fittest city in the US’ given to Honolulu in Hawaii, with the entire family engaged in the sport of volleyball.

Erik’s father, Dave, has been the coach of Hawaii’s Rainbow Wahine women’s volleyball team for the past 34 years. In this time he has registered 924 wins and is only the third coach in the NCAA Division 1 women’s volleyball history to cross the 900-win mark.

His mother, Mary, serves as the volleyball coach at the Punahou school. Erik is the youngest among three siblings, and his older sister played at the University of Michigan. She now works as the director of women’s volleyball at Stanford University, where the 19-year-old Erik is currently taking a degree course in Human Biology. Erik’s brother, Kawika, a junior at Stanford, is his team mate at the NCAA championships.

Erik says the sport has become a way of life for him and his family. “We eat, sleep and drink volleyball,” he said.

Erik started his career at the age of seven, becoming a part of the Outrigger Canoe Club in 1997. He spent the next ten years there, and then graduated on to being regarded as the best defensive prospect in the nation from the class of 2008. He was named the best defender and best libero at the 2007 youth world championships in Tijuana, Mexico while representing the US youth team. Erik, remarkably, is also an all-state tennis doubles champion.

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