BLOG: Waiakea Grad Morita Joins UH Football Staff

Monica Morita, a Waiakea High School graduate and long-time employee of the University of Southern California, will now be helping out the University of Hawaii football team.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is reporting (http://bit.ly/1m1KQGz) that Morita has become head coach Norm Chow’s executive assistant.

Morita spent the past 25 years at USC, including the last dozen as director of student services.

And the school will no doubt miss her, as last month she was named the athletic department’s “2014 staff member of the year.”

At USC, she also worked as an assistant to former football coaches Paul Hackett and Pete Carroll.

The Star-Advertiser said Morita will be essentially Chow’s chief deputy, with her new duties to include academic liaison.

Morita, who earned a doctorate in education while working full-time, had previously worked with Chow when he served as offensive coordinator for the Trojans.

Morita told the newspaper that she wanted to return to Hawaii to be closer to her mother, a resident of Hilo.