UH-Hilo: AD Announcement Could Come Next Week

A spokesman for the University of Hawai’i at Hilo says an announcement could be made next week regarding the school’s Director of Athletics position.

On June 12, UH-Hilo announced that it had selected two finalists for the AD position: current Notre Dame de Namur Director of Athletics Joshua Doody and former Cal State Dominguez Hills AD Patrick Guillen. Doody met with the HIilo community on June 19 and Guillen appeared on June 23.

Applications were submitted to the school and its screening committee back in early March. Dr. Randy Hirokawa, the selection committee head, told Big Island Now last month that the group first met on March 12 in hopes of narrowing down the 124 applications for the position to a quality group of finalists.

The spokesman would not confirm if UH-Hilo Chancellor Dr. Donald Straney had made his recommendation for the position, but said that his choice would need to be approved by University of Hawai’i President David Lassner and the Board of Regents.

UH-Hilo has not had a full-time athletic director since the end of the 2013 calendar year. At that time, Dexter Irvin had left UH-Hilo to take on a similar role at the College of Southern Nevada.

Since Irvin left, two different people have filled his role in an interim basis. Tim Moore, current head of the school’s Student Life Center, ran the athletic department throughout 2014, but was not retained. Currently, former baseball coach Joey Estrella is running the athletic department until the permanent hire is brought in. Estrella came out of retirement in January to assist the athletic department.