Turner’s Initial Stay on Isle Brings Smiles

WHITTIER —  Cathy Turner had definitely watched too much “Gilligan’s Island.” When she went to the University of Hawaii last year, her idea of island life was, well, comedic.

“I pictured a little island with huts and people running around half-naked,” said Turner, a former softball standout at La Habra High.

Instead, she found that Oahu is industrialized, and civilization had a remarkable familiarity to it.

“I found it to be a lot like home without all the pressure and the busyness,” Turner said. “I felt taken in by the (softball) team. I didn’t feel excluded at all. I fit in perfect; it was great.”

So great that she worked herself into a starting position before the Rainbows (24-35) opened Big West Conference play.

As the leadoff batter, she hit .308 and led the team in stolen bases, successful on five of six attempts.

She is one of four third basemen selected to participate in the U.S. Olympic Festival that starts Friday in San Antonio.

“She’s an excellent third baseman, truly excellent,” said Gary Haning, who will assist the West team at the festival and who coached against Turner in Amateur Softball Assn. 18-and-under competition. “She’s incredibly quick, both offensively and defensively. She’s one of the very few third basemen who make it difficult to play our game against, where we have to alter our game.”

Turner teamed with Sara Mallett, now at Nevada Las Vegas, to help the Highlanders become the No. 1-seeded team in the 1992 Southern Section Division II playoffs; they were upset in the semifinals. Both will play in San Antonio.

“Last year (after graduation), I was looking to get away for a while,” Turner said. “I had lived in the same house for 18 years and I needed a change of pace, and Hawaii was the perfect place to do it. Now that I’m there, I enjoy it. It’s a nice place to relax.”

She seriously considered Utah State, Northwestern, Texas A&M;, Princeton and Yale before accepting a scholarship to Hawaii.

“I think I was tired of the same old routine of my life,” Turner said. “I needed something to break the monotony of La Habra.”

But it hasn’t always been easy. Hawaii presents problems unlike mainland universities. Being isolated by 2,500 miles of ocean took its toll. She got “friendsick.” Road trips were long, and tests sometimes were administered by fax. And there are tourist-like distractions because, after all, it is Hawaii.

“You have to keep yourself in class,” Turner said. “It’s a challenge to stay grounded and concentrate on school. It’s such a wonderful place to be. You always want to be out doing stuff when you have to stay focused on school and softball.”

Although she said it was tough, she “thought it was going to be worse than it was.”

“I did better with my grades in the spring than in the fall,” Turner said. “I had to work harder to keep my grades up. I forced myself to study because we were gone so much.”

She also forced herself to be social.

“Dealing with the fact there was the ocean between me and everyone else was the biggest adjustment,” Turner said. “It would have been different if I was at a college back east because you’d be surrounded by land and someone could come see you.

“I would get phone calls from friends, and they would tell me about what they were doing, how much fun they were having, and I’m going, ‘I’m stuck on an island--come and get me.’

“But I started making friends after a few weeks; I’m not a very social person, but I had to be. I started going out--the softball team hangs out a lot, and a lot of my close friends are softball players.”

She wasn’t a castaway. Not at all.