Dave Reardon: Students provide input in UH’s AD search

The deadline to get your application in for “best consideration” to become the University of Hawaii’s next athletic director was Friday.

That means UH president David Lassner’s search/advisory committee can get down to the business of helping to pick a replacement for eight-year AD David Matlin.

The choice is supposed to be the president’s. He presents a name to the Board of Regents for approval. How much the searching and advising of the committee comes into play is up to him.

These committees are often considered not much more than window-dressing — and a way to diffuse blame if things don’t go well with a high-profile hire, or to share credit with friends of the program if the pick turns out to be a good one.

The composition of the committee for this job came under fire March 3 when former UH student-athletes — including some of the biggest stars in Rainbow Warrior and Wahine history — signed a letter protesting a dearth of Black and Polynesian representation on the committee.

Also, most people who understand how Division I intercollegiate athletics work agree with this: Someone with football expertise should be on a committee tasked with finding the next AD at a school where football generates income that helps most of the other teams survive. There was little to none of that on the committee as originally formed.

The school responded quickly to the protest and added former UH and NFL wide receiver and college football coach Ashley Lelie to the committee last week. The successful businessman checks off several boxes that make the committee more diverse and, perhaps, relevant.

Is it enough? We’ll see.

UH made a good choice in Lelie to fill what it called “gaps” in demographics of the committee. But, as I sometimes ask, what about the students?

Then I realized Lelie is a UH student again now, working on a master’s degree.

“It’s a little odd that they wouldn’t have the students represented (from the beginning), at least the athletes,” said Blake Lapitan, a UH journalism student.

For their last assignment before spring break, I asked my sports journalism students to write an opinion piece answering this question: “Who should be the next UH athletic director?”

I told them to have fun with it. When it comes to sports opinions I want to be educated or entertained … preferably both.

With that in mind, I wasn’t shocked when two of the 15 students wrote in support of Charles Barkley as the new UH athletic director. Myles Blazer and Sharif Tarin sit at opposite ends of the classroom, so I’m pretty sure they came up with the idea independently.

“Charles would be a great candidate because of his work ethic, assertive attitude, and charisma,” Tarin wrote. “I also believe his assertive attitude is the type of voice we need as an athletics program. When Barkley doesn’t get what he wants, someone’s going to hear about it until it goes his way.”

Obviously, we’re not worried here about the infamous minimum qualifications of time served in athletic administration.

Sierra Minor offered five interesting names from closer to home, including one that was in the running when the job last opened: Rick Blangiardi, who is now mayor of Honolulu. The others are Bob Nash (former UH basketball star and coach), Keith T. Hayashi (DOE superintendent), Dr. Libby Char (state health director), and Jeannie Lee (Matlin’s executive assistant).

Maddie McElroy wrote in support of Lois Manin, the No. 2 person in the UH athletic department now (and the first mentioned so far likely to have applied).

“She already has an idea of how the job would run,” McElroy wrote. “She has the experience and knows the school.”

Another who does is Jim Donovan, the former UH athletic director now at the same post at Cal State Fullerton.

Nicole DeLapp wrote that Donovan would be good for a bounceback to Manoa because of his abilities as a fundraiser.

She also wrote in support of former Warriors football coach June Jones — one of four students to do so, making him the class’ favorite.

“June Jones has a great affection for the school’s sports program and has consistently shown it since long ago,” Eujin Chung wrote. “He has a lot of relevant experience and he is the perfect person to fill this position.”

Jones has said he’d coach football again at UH for free. Is the same offer on the table to be Timmy Chang’s boss?

Vu Lai wrote that the search can be called off because the best person for the job is sitting in the AD’s office now, and someone just needs to talk Matlin out of retiring.