When associate coach Mike Sealy came here two years ago he was convinced, after about 30 seconds, that Nickie Thomas was the best volleyball player in the University of Hawai'i practice gym.

Today, she struggles to walk normally and still stands tall. Somehow, through the miracles of modern medicine, tenacious trainers and a remarkable will, Thomas is starting at middle blocker for the eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine her senior year. This after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee five matches into the 2006 season and blew out her left knee a week into practice last year.

"I just felt terrible for her," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Coming back from one knee surgery is one thing. Having a second one is pretty devastating. I thought she was through. ... Nobody is going to look down on you and call you a quitter after two knee surgeries."

What is the polar opposite of a quitter? Thomas, pursued by USC, Nebraska and Florida among others coming out of high school in Austin, Texas, could write a thesis on it.

Volleyball was her life in Texas, and the only way she could get a degree without going deep into debt. While others hesitate to cross an ocean to go to school, she practically cannon-balled her way across the Pacific, elated at the opportunity to play for a top-10 program and be her own country music-loving woman.

"I never really liked high school very much because I didn't think it was challenging," Thomas said. "I wanted to be on my own, live on my own. That's why I went so far away. College was just good with me."

Everything about it, but for those two crushing moments when her body — the ideal lanky, leap-happy, laterally gliding 6-foot-3 volleyball body — failed her.

Thomas thrives on the independence college demands. She loves where she lives, has "two great dogs and a wonderful boyfriend." She discovered her academic niche early on in sociology and the unique perspective women's studies provides. It appeals to her common sense and candid nature.

"I'm not taking a major that I forget half the stuff and don't end up using it," Thomas said. "I use this stuff all the time. I like that about it."

She talks about classes and professors as enthusiastically as she talks about volleyball — and Thomas' passion for the sport lived on through her ordeals. She is the student every bit as much as the athlete.

"Both her major and minor intrigue her," said Matt Price, her boyfriend of three years. "She will come home and tell me all about this crazy, interesting stuff. Sometimes she will be like, 'I was in class today and nobody else was talking. Can you believe it?' "

Adds UH associate Kari Ambrozich: "She is someone who really bought into college. She has definitely found something she liked and bought into it."

FUN TIMES AGAIN

Thomas will graduate in December. She could petition the NCAA for another year of eligibility, to get back one of the three seasons (she redshirted in 2004) she missed while she pursues her master's. It is a complicated long shot, both for the NCAA and Thomas, and she won't make any decision until this season ends.

She wants to enjoy every nanosecond. She knows, more than pretty much anybody, how precious this time is.

"Just getting to play, feeling like part of the team is fantastic," Thomas said. "For two years I've been there, but I wasn't really there. I couldn't do everything with everybody. I'd shag balls and keep score. I felt like a volunteer or something. Getting to be around the girls all the time and be on court with them and travel with them and be part of the team is so much more fun.

"The other part of it was that half the time they were at practice I was in the training room. I was in my own world doing my own thing. I didn't even feel like a volleyball player anymore so this is just nice."

Thomas, because what she and the doctors and trainer Renae Shigemura have re-created, is still better than most middle blockers in college. It is not the Nickie Thomas of two years ago, with All-America attitude and the ability to touch 10 feet 6 and slide effortlessly side-to-side.

Instead it is the older, wiser bionic Thomas, who makes up for what she lost in quickness and vertical jump — down some six inches — with wisdom and setters who get her the ball before the blockers get there; Thomas leads the WAC in hitting at .399. She also has the last two years of rehabilitation to "inspire"and teach her patience.

"I still don't walk the same," Thomas said. "The hardest part coming back was just bending my knee. I spent so much time in the training room. I was in there five hours a day, doing rehabilitation every day. Bending it after a while ... both knees got stuck and Renae would bend it so bad she's made me cry. I was crying just trying to bend my leg."

Somehow she stuck it out, twice. Shoji still is not quite sure how, but he is happy to have the rare athlete who combines "low-maintenance" maturity with a remarkable will to play for his team, through two years of pain and now the nagging doubt in the back of her head that she could get hurt yet again.

"You are seeing someone that is maybe 80 to 90 percent physically able to do what she is capable of doing," he said. "Then, you're seeing about 60 percent of what you probably could have seen if she had stayed healthy."

Thomas and Shoji would like to have her blocking more balls, as she did Sunday against Fresno State, and making more of an impact on offense. But both, and teammate Jessica Keefe — who also lost two seasons to injury — have had to learn patience.

That is not all bad. The injuries have had an unexpected impact on Thomas and Keefe, who redshirted together in 2004 and have immense empathy for each other. Both came in highly recruited and all about volleyball. Both leave as exceptionally well-rounded student-athletes, and much wiser people.

"The injuries give you a different perspective," Shoji said. "Everybody thinks they are going to go on and play, and volleyball will be their life for a while. Nickie and Jessica understand there's got to be something more immediate in their life."

CHEF AND THE ATHLETE

That would be a degree. Much to Thomas's surprise, her studies now mean as much as volleyball, and Price. They met through former teammate Susie Boogaard, whose husband was Price's roommate on a Navy submarine. Price was the cook on the sub and, for the last four years, has been an aid — and chef — to four admirals. He has cooked for President Bush twice, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and two Secretaries of Defense.

Price was never an athlete and Thomas was never a cook. They are still a match made in paradise, with different interests and the same basic ideals, according to Price — along with "pretty silly senses of humor." He has learned a lot about volleyball in Hawai'i during his nine years here, especially the last three.

"Nickie, of course, likes winning a lot, but I think that the moment when she gets in there and they have this point they need right now ... the excitement of knowing what needs to happen, she likes living in that moment best," Price said. "She likes the intensity of it. She is an intense person, ask anyone."

He sees her as some kind of mentor in the future. Ambrozich envisions her in social work, "helping women in some capacity — single moms, women that need help," the coach said. "She is easy to talk to. You can sit down and she will tell you like it is. She has empathy and sympathy, and she's pretty matter of fact."

Thomas is talking about advanced degrees and a future in "research and development" that could "definitely" include work with "women and children who are suffering. I would like to do something like that," Thomas said. "Working with people and families and trying to figure out what works well."

It is a long way from Volleyball Magazine's Fab 50 list.

"After my knee surgeries, volleyball moved down a little because now, after so many, I came to the realization that I'm not invincible," Thomas said. "I might not be able to do this as long as I wanted, so getting an education became very important because that's what I would need if I can't play volleyball. I still love it to death and love playing, but I'm a realistic person. Education took a little more equal stance."

She still might not be able to walk right, but clearly she can think straight.