Another athlete has tested positive for steroid. According to the Italian Olympic Committee, former University of Hawai’i All-American volleyball player Kim Willoughby is added to the growing list of steroid users among athletes. The committee also announced that Willoughby tested positive for nandrolone after the Italian club Perugia played Cesena last April 5. It is stated in the website of Club Perugia that Willoughby returned to the United States right after the team was eliminated from the league playoffs last month. She reasoned of a family emergency for her immediate departure. Willoughby is from Napoleonville, La. On the US Volleyball website, it reported that Willoughby returned to the Puerto Rico Super League right after her season was finished in Italy and competed in the playoffs at the end of April.

Willoughby was a reserve on the American Team, the same team that won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. She also played for the Rainbow Wahine from 2000-2003, which earns her the first-team All-America honors. Also included in her other awards are the AVCA National Player of the Year in 2003. This is the time when she led Hawai’i to its third final four in four years. Willoughby is known as the Rainbow Wahine career kill leader. A UH official also said that the volleyball star never failed a drug test while she was attending Manoa.

Aside from testing positive in steroid, Willoughby also had other legal troubles. On June 28, 2007, she was charged with first and second degree assault, both charges coming from separate incidents. Meanwhile, on June 8, 2001, the Honolulu police charged her with abuse of a household member and a third-degree assault. On September 2008, Willoughby was also arrested and was charged with first degree assault and pleaded not guilty from an incident in December 2006. The said incident happened when she allegedly caused serious injuries to Sara Daniel at Pipeline Café in Kakaako. Daniel suffered severe bone fractures in the face. But Willoughby claimed self-defense which the prosecutor disagreed by saying that she “followed Daniel out of the club, and that’s when this all happened.”

The trial will begin in May 25 and once convicted, Willoughby will face a maximum of ten years in prison. However, a change of plea hearing has been scheduled for May 18. It is not known if the steroid issue will affect the hearing.

Willoughby was born in Houma, Louisiana and grew up in Napoleonville, Louisiana where she attended Assumption High School. She is not only a volleyball player but she also played track and field and basketball. She led her high school volleyball team in winning three consecutive state championships and was named Louisiana Player of the Year. During her senior in college, she ranked second nationally in kills per game by garnering 6.59 and adding averages 2.99 digs and 0.62 aces per game. For her career, she averaged 5.91 kills per game which ranked third-best in NCAA history. She also had career totals of 1,440 digs, 194 aces and 291 blocks and over 459 career games.

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