HONOLULU – Former University of Hawai’i softball standout Dallas Millwood cannot seem to escape diamond sports. 

The 2018 graduate of Kamehameha-Kapālama enjoyed an elite high school career on the softball field, receiving all-league honors in all four of her varsity seasons while leading the Warriors to a trio of league championships. Sports were an early interest for Millwood, the youngest of four girls, as she tried her hand (and feet) at soccer and baseball at age four. 

Millwood played baseball until she was 8, eventually switching and playing with an age group two years in front of hers to play softball. Her love for trying sports continued into middle school, trying volleyball (and admittedly struggling) before making the soccer team as a 7th grader as a goalkeeper. 

While sports were the focus for Millwood, school sat on the backburner as she sat with the impression that athletics could get you into anywhere. Even more, she did not realize the quality of the education that Kamehameha-Kapālama provided and how unique of an experience she was receiving until entering high school. 

“I stopped taking it for granted that I went to such an amazing school that was able to teach me so much history that isn’t taught in every school,” Millwood recalled. 

While peers at other schools talked about field trips that were based around going to Disneyland, Kamehameha-Kapālama would help students connect back with the land by taking trips to the lo’i patch or visiting Big Island and seeing the lava tubes, among other activities. 

“You start to understand [that] those are some really good field trips,” Millwood said. “You get to understand, you get to connect and just really get to know the ‘Āina that we’re living on, so I will forever be proud that I went to Kamehameha.” 

She coasted through her freshman and sophomore years in the classroom while maintaining full focus on the diamond as one of Hawai’i’s top softball gems. It was only after a wake-up call from UCLA that saw the Bruins not offer simply because her grades were not high enough that she realized the need to put the same amount of effort into her studies as her swing. 

“You have to be a student before you be an athlete because no matter where you go, you can’t play unless you have the grades,” Millwood offered as advice from her experience.  

Her junior and senior years reflected the realization, improving her grade point average to a perfect 4.0 in both calendar cycles as she committed to the University of Nevada-Reno to play Division I softball with one of her Guava Jam teammates. While her lone season with the Wolfpack was a successful one that she is “forever thankful” for, the Mililani-native felt the islands calling back to her after the Rainbow Warriors visited for a football game.  

Seeing some of her KS-Kapālama peers during their visit from Hawai’i, Millwood started to think about a homecoming – though softball was not the main consideration. She talked with her former classmates about what it was like to play for Hawai’i and entered the transfer portal.  

Her parents supported her through the decision to return to the islands, as did UH softball coach Bob Coolen with an offer to join the team and work her way onto the field. Millwood waited for her opportunity and seized it, taking over near the end of the 2021 season at first base after an injury left the job open. 

She started the final 20 contests of the season for Hawai’i and would not relinquish her hold on the starting first baseman role until breaking her ankle in the first game of her senior year. While that injury closed the door to Millwood’s FBI dream, it opened a chance at another year of college softball as she used a medical hardship redshirt while rehabbing to finish her undergraduate degree and retain eligibility. 

Millwood was approached by University of Hawai’i head baseball coach Rich Hill while helping at a keiki camp about joining his staff after she was done with her playing days just before that true senior season. She originally thought the jovial head coach was joking around with her, but Hill was consistent in his pursuit until she truly considered the offer after breaking her ankle. 

“I was like oh, [Coach Hill] is serious,” Millwood laughed. 

The injury that had closed the door on the FBI helped lead to a realization of what path to pursue. Millwood got a masters’ certificate in peace and conflict resolution during her first year in graduate school before switching programs to pursue an educational foundations masters’ degree (which she is on pace to receive in May 2025). With crossover between education and coaching, Millwood saw the overlap as an easy transition. 

Her addition is a smart one by Hill, who gets another voice on staff with background in navigating the world of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) as an athlete that can also draw upon personal playing experience in handling the highs and lows of a sport predicated on failure. She also is as tough as they come, showing more heart and determination than most to return from her broken ankle and take the field again. 

Hawai’i softball celebrates nine seniors following double-header against Cal State Fullerton. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Hill and Millwood would end up sitting down to discuss how the program runs for Hawai’i baseball and the culture that he wanted to uphold. While she knows that the life of a graduate assistant is an unspectacular one that will involve the less-than-flashy parts of being a coach, she enters each day with a positivity and determination that is reflected by Hill. 

“There’s just so much more to being a coach than what people see on a game day,” Millwood said she learned from her early experiences. “[Coach Hill’s positivity] makes it so I’m like ‘I love it here too!’” 

Every day is a new learning experience for Millwood, who went from preparing to tackle bad guys to preparing to tackle the competition with the baseball team. For Hawai’i, not letting her leave the diamond is one they knocked out of the park.