UH-Hilo to Name Guillen Next AD

Former Cal State Dominguez Hills athletic director Patrick Guillen has told Big Island Now that he will become the next Director of Athletics at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo.

An official announcement by the University of Hawai’i at Hilo is scheduled to come out later Tuesday.

Guillen, currently an independent consultant in the business sector, was the Director of Athletics at Dominguez Hills from 2005-2014. He was the Assistant Athletic Director at the school from 2002-2005. During his time there, Guillen raised $900,000 for improvements to athletic facilities and increased the department’s endowment fund from $17,000 to almost $600,000 in eight years.

On June 24, Guillen met with the community. Among the items discussed during the small gathering were his ideas of wanting to institute a mandatory study hall at UH-Hilo for incoming student athletes. He also discussed reconnecting fans who reminisce about the “old days of UH-Hilo” with the present. Guillen also expressed that the athletic department, which currently runs on a $2.8 million dollar budget, needed another $600,000 to adequately fund the 12 NCAA Division II sports offered.

In March, a screening committee, led by Dr. Randy Hirokawa, started sifting through 124 applications before announcing the two finalists.

Donald Straney, UH-Hilo Chancellor, made Guillen’s recommendation, which was subject to approval from school president David Lassner and the Board of Regents. Straney chose Guillen over Joshua Doody, current AD at Notre Dame de Namur University.

UH-Hilo has been without a full time Director of Athletics since the end of 2013, when Dexter Irvin left the school to take on a similar role at the College of Southern Nevada. Since then, two different people have led the athletic department on an interim basis. Tim Moore held the interim job through 2014. Former baseball coach Joey Estrella is currently serving in the role.