After more than a year, the University of Hawaii at Hilo has yet to hire a permanent athletic director, but it took a step in that direction Friday by announcing two finalists for the job. ADVERTISING After more than a
After more than a year, the University of Hawaii at Hilo has yet to hire a permanent athletic director, but it took a step in that direction Friday by announcing two finalists for the job.
The two candidates are Notre Dame de Namur AD Joshua Doody and Patrick Guillen, former AD at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
In something of an unusual move, the UHH AD finalists will meet with the university community and general public, which will be allowed to pose questions to the candidates.
Doody’s public presentation is Friday, June 18, and Guillen’s is Tuesday, June 23. Both are at 4 p.m. at UHH’s classroom UCB 127.
Former UHH AD Dexter Irvin’s last day on the job was Dec. 31, 2013. He’s now the AD at College of Southern Nevada, where he has family.
It’s not the first time UHH has had a long delay in making an official announcement.
In June of 2013, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser broke the story that UHH hired GE Coleman as the men’s basketball coach.
For nearly a week, the Coleman hire was known as the “worst kept secret in town,” highlighted often on the radio airwaves and print media because UHH was unable to officially make an announcement.
It frustrated Irvin, who called it a “red-tape situation,” that the Hilo upper campus personnel didn’t expedite the process.
He spent five years at UHH, taking over a department that struggled with fundraising with $50,000 annually in 2011-12 before he arrived to $247,000 when he left.
Despite his efforts, the Vulcans are the lowest funded program in the 13-team Pacific West Conference, which is filled with private schools; some with healthy endowments. UHH and Dixie State (Irvin’s old school) are the only public institutions.
On Nov. 22, 2014, UHH chancellor Donald Straney wrote a guest column in the Tribune-Herald sport section making a plea to the community for help with sponsorships, raising scholarship funds or attending games.
He also wrote: “I look forward to hiring someone who can work effectively with athletes, coaches and the community.”
After Irvin left, UHH hired Tim Moore, the school’s director of the campus recreation department, as the temporary AD.
Retired UHH baseball coach Joey Estrella replaced Moore on Jan. 1, 2015.
The athletic department has a budget of $2.6 million for 12 teams. However, more than 70 percent of the budget is for travel.
Guillen is an independent consultant specializing in business development. At Cal State Dominguez Hills, he was responsible for increasing the athletics department’s endowment from $17,000 in 2005 to nearly $600,000 in 2013.
He also raised $900,000 for major facility improvements to the gymnasium, baseball, and softball field.
Prior to joining CSU Dominguez Hills, he served as the sports information director at Vanguard University and the Far West Region sports information director for the NAIA.
Under Doody, the AD since 2005, the Argonauts won the 2007-08 PacWest Academic Achievement Award and the Community Engagement Award in 2011 and 2014, and he led efforts to move the school from the NAIA to NCAA level.
Prior to becoming the AD at Notre Dame de Namur, he served as the head athletic trainer at Whittier College and Notre Dame de Namur University, as well as the director of compliance at Notre Dame de Namur University.
