McNamara’s exit hints at UH athletics shake-up

Even before he interviewed for the University of Hawaii athletic director’s job, David Matlin was the choice of many department rank and file.

People who had worked with him earlier in the UH ticket office and on the marketing staff as well as in his time with the Hawaii Bowl and Diamond Head Classic said they liked his attention to detail and easy-going manner and, candidly, said they viewed him as less likely than other candidates to shake up the place.

Which is one of the reasons that Matlin’s decision early in his tenure not to retain John McNamara as associate athletic director for external affairs after 11 years came as a surprise to many inside and outside the department.

The action, in Matlin’s fifth month on the job, is seen as an indication that there may be additional changes coming in a department that, except for the revolving door AD position, has seen little movement in a decade.

What was crafted to look like a mutual parting was anything but. Matlin has declined to publicly discuss what prompted the decision not to retain McNamara, who oversaw corporate sponsorships, marketing, merchandising and media.

Boosters and business people — some of whom have privately expressed disappointment with the move but refused to speak for attribution — say he has told them he has been given a free hand to pick his own executive team by Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman and plans to exercise it.

That latitude, something not afforded all of Matlin’s predecessors, comes hand in hand with the charge to improve the fiscal health of the 21-team department that has been running at a $3.5 million deficit.

When he took over in April, Matlin demurred on reshuffling plans. But he said, "At the end of the day you have to do what’s right for the program. You have to bring the program forward."

Since then he has paraphrased Albert Einstein’s quote about the definition of insanity — "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" — to several people in regard to the UH situation.

Change to senior staff has been rare at UH, with all three current associate athletic directors closing in on 10 years or more. McNamara, for example, has served with four full-time ADs and two interim appointees at UH. Some senior staffers have been there through as many as six administrations, plus interim ADs.

Not since Herman Frazier’s tenure as AD (2002-07) has UH hired senior staff. Half of the six-member executive team came during Frazier’s stay.

McNamara, 52, who was a finalist for the AD job that went to Matlin, said this week, "I respect David’s right to assemble his own executive team and I look forward to new and exciting career adventures and opportunities."

Matlin has insisted the changes in the executive team, as well as his first coaching hire, the selection of Eran Ganot as the men’s basketball coach, have been his alone and not dictated from above or outside campus.

McNamara, who came to UH after serving as associate commissioner of Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference, oversaw a corporate partner program that saw 11 consecutive years of growth in drumming up record cash and trade with local and national companies. For the 2014-15 fiscal year it is credited with bringing in more than $5 million, including nearly $2.5 million in cash.

McNamara has been working on the renewal of UH’s lucrative Under Armour contract.

"We appreciate the many contributions John made to UH athletics during his 11-plus years of service, especially his tireless efforts to grow the Corporate Partner Program and elevate the game experience for our fans," Matlin said.

Matlin said he hopes to hire a successor this year.

At UH, executive and managerial personnel serve at the pleasure of university and school policy notes, "the non-reappointment of individuals to executive and managerial positions is not consideration a termination for cause but is an exercise of the university’s prerogative to select executive and managerial personnel to direct and manage the affairs of the university."

Under the policy, after two or more years of service "six months’ notice must be given prior to the effective date of the termination action."

Most other staff are members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, and that has sometimes been a bone of contention for ADs who have sought to remove or reassign staffers.

The three associate ADs — McNamara, Carl Clapp and Marilyn Moniz-Kaho’ohanohano — earn between $133,008 and $148,008 annually — according to recent UH figures.

Clapp, 56, an AD at Saint Mary’s, Redlands and Avila universities and an interim holder of the position at UH, oversees administrative services. He reaches 10 years at Manoa in April and qualifies for retirement benefits, but said his plans are undecided.

"I haven’t made any decision. Right now I’m just trying to do everything that I can to help support David and the department, as I always have," Clapp said. "And, if I end up going past the 10 (years) and staying in paradise, that’s not a bad thing."

Moniz-Kaho’ohanohano, 61, a former Rainbow Wahine volleyball player (1972-75), has spent 26 years as an assistant and associate AD and senior women’s administrator at UH. She has been attending retiring briefings for several years but said she does not plan to retire until at least 2017.