Robbie Dosty’s basketball career at Arizona ended almost 30 years ago, but the Dosty name is alive and well in McKale Center.

“”It’s almost beyond description of what you feel,”” said Robbie Dosty about watching his daughter, Whitney Dosty, a senior outside hitter on Arizona’s volleyball team, follow in his footsteps as an athlete at the school.  

“”You have pride, then you have a number of emotions … almost like astonishment that 32 or 33 years ago, you spent much of your life in this arena, and now your daughter is doing the same thing.””

Whitney Dosty has similar feelings about following in her father’s footsteps.

“”I think it’s cool,”” she said. “”He had no idea, and I don’t think I had any idea my entire time growing up, that I would be coming and playing a sport in the same place that he did.””

Even though father and daughter are happy how things turned out, they admit it was unintentional. Robbie Dosty said that Whitney Dosty’s college plans weren’t “”totally in her hands.””

“”I did everything I could to kind of influence the decision, without being directly involved in influencing the decision,”” he said with a chuckle.

Even though her father says that he tried to influence her decision, Whitney Dosty has a different take.

She said that, as loyal as her father is to Arizona, he never tried to push her to commit to the university.

“”Obviously, I know he would want me to stay home, but it was never a big deal,”” she said.

Although she is following in his footsteps, Whitney Dosty knows that her father wants for her what any father would want for a daughter.

“”He wanted me to go where I felt happiest,”” she said.  

Initially, Whitney Dosty — a Tucson native — was hesitant to go to school so close to home.

“”She liked Texas quite a bit, but I was convinced that Arizona, with coach (Dave) Rubio, was the place to be,”” Robbie Dosty said.

Whitney Dosty’s recruiting process was a long one. Rated the fourth-best player in the country by PrepVolleyball.com, she had nearly every top program knocking at her door.

That didn’t stop Arizona head coach Dave Rubio from selling his program to the best local prospect in years.

“”The traditional sell was there for sure — carrying on her father’s tradition,”” Rubio said. “”Everyone was after Whitney.””

The family sat down and talked about several areas of concern, the greatest of which were the challenges that face a collegiate student-athlete moving out

of state.

“”If you look at a school and look at a program, and are out of state and everything is going OK, then really you don’t have a lot to worry about or a lot of regrets,”” Robbie Dosty said.

“”But if you leave home and things don’t work out the way you want them to work out — then you’ve got some real issues that you’ve got to deal with on a long-distance basis. I know Whitney’s makeup and Whitney’s character, and she just is not the type of individual that puts up with a lot of nonsense.””

Whitney Dosty says that her father had many more words of wisdom to offer her throughout the college experience.

“”He’s given me a lot of advice,”” she said. “”Probably (the best advice he’s given is) to enjoy every minute of it, and at the end of the day make sure that it was what I wanted to do, and go where I wanted to go. Now that I’m in college, just do what I want to do and have fun doing it.””

The father and daughter also share another similarity in their respective athletic careers — neither will play their sport after college. Although Robbie Dosty was a seventh round pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 1981 NBA Draft, he never played a game.

However, Rubio knows that the end of a playing career didn’t hold Robbie Dosty back and won’t affect Whitney Dosty one bit.

“”Her best days,”” Rubio said, “”are well in front of her — after college.””