Congratulations to Dana Takahara-Dias, who was named the new Wahine basketball coach today.

Former University of Hawai‘i women’s basketball player and assistant Dana Takahara-Dias has been selected as the school’s new head women’s basketball coach, athletics director Jim Donovan announced Thursday at a press conference in the Ed Wong Hospitality Room.

Takahara-Dias, a four-year UH letterwinner from 1984-88, is the program’s seventh head coach since becoming a varsity sport in 1974 and first woman head coach since Patsy Dung (1974-79).

“It is with great pleasure that I announce former Rainbow Wahine Dana Takahara-Dias as our new women’s basketball coach,” Donovan said. “She is a Rainbow Wahine at heart. She began as a walk-on in 1984, earned a scholarship, graduated from UH, and came back as an administrative assistant on former coach Vince Goo’s staff. She later went on to a successful high school coaching career at Moanalua and with Team Aloha and has honed her leadership skills with the City & County of Honolulu. She’s come back to the UH ‘ohana and will be a true role model for the young women of Hawai‘i.”