Coaches will get
extensions

But the UH Board of Regents
wants to include a performance clause
before approving multi-year deals

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

KAHULUI -- The University of Hawaii Board of Regents is expected to approve contract extensions for coaches of major UH sports, although it stopped short of doing away with rollover contracts for coaches.

The board's personnel committee yesterday deferred a plan that would have allowed the university to offer multi-year contracts of up to five years to coaches and its athletic director.

Regents first want Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida to provide the board with general performance guidelines to include in its board policy and in any multi-year contracts signed by coaches. Regent Lee Ohigashi spearheaded the delay because he said he felt contracts for coaches -- whether rollover or multi-year -- need to include ways the board and UH administration can judge a coach's performance.

"It would appear to me that part of the problem that we've been facing recently in all the different types of coaches contracts seems to be an unclear idea of what criteria that they're judged for (contract) extensions," Ohigashi said. "None of the contracts that I know of or recall seeing had any type of criteria built into it."

Yoshida confirmed there are no performance guidelines in current contracts and agreed there should be. With UH leaning toward multi-year contracts of three to five years, the university is at financial risk if it can't measure a coach's work, he said.

Regent Ah Quon McElrath suggested the criteria include a coach's win-and-loss record, the graduation rate of student-athletes in a sport and the number of scholar athletes.

Regent Jack Hoag said he recognizes the need for coaches to have tenure so they can build on long-term plans such as recruitment. But he suggested Yoshida also look at possible buy-out clauses in contracts to deal with coaches who don't make the cut and good coaches who resign in mid-contract to accept a better offer elsewhere.

"If we have a coach who turns out to be dynamite and he is recruited (by other schools) in mid-contract, do we have anything to keep him here?" Hoag said.

Yoshida, after the deferral, said the board's action surprised him, but he understands its concerns. Criteria Yoshida would consider putting in a coach's contract might include academics, budget issues such as attendance and win-and-loss records. Yoshida also will look at performance standards used by comparable schools in the Western Athletic Conference.

Regents today are expected to extend UH football coach Fred von Appen's contract -- which expires after next year -- another two years. Basketball coach Riley Wallace is expected to get a five-year extension that ends in April 2002.

Women's basketball coach Vince Goo also should receive a five-year contract extension. Longtime baseball coach Les Murakami and men's volleyball coach Mike Wilton's are expected to get three-year extensions.