COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Chaminade University head athletic trainer Rebecca Duran has been announced as one of the staff members to the USA Women's Volleyball U21 National Team which will compete in the 2023 NORCECA U21 Women's Pan American Cup in Nogales, Mexico, next week.
Duran will be the team's head athletic trainer during the competition which starts on Tuesday, May 23 and ends with the medal and classification matches on May 28. She has been with the U21 team training in Anaheim, California, since last week.
Rebecca Duran (second row, far right) with USA U21 Team (courtesy USA Volleyball)
The Kaneohe native Castle High School alumnae is in her second stint as Chaminade's head athletic trainer, returning to the university in March. She first led the department's training staff from 2016 through '19 and was an assistant trainer for CUH the previous three years.
"I am very grateful for this opportunity to work with Team USA," Duran said. "I look forward to helping these elite-level athletes compete in Mexico. I am honored to represent Chaminade University, my community and Hawai'i as the team's athletic trainer."
The USA Volleyball U21 team also has a bit of an island flair.
University of Texas opposite hitter Devin Kahahawai, a Kamehameha-Kapalama graduate who hails from Kailua, is one of the 12 players on the squad. Head coach Dan Fisher, the current coach at the University of Pittsburgh, was the associate head coach for the men's team at the University of Hawai'i from 2009 through '11. And assistant coach Josh Walker, who is currently an assistant for the Baylor University women, played for UH from 2006 to '11 before returning to Manoa as an assistant under current men's coach Charlie Wade from 2016 through '21.
USA Volleyball opens pool play in the Pan American Cup next Tuesday against Costa Rica followed by matches against the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Belize, Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico make up the other pool.
