Sports Watch
"I'm proud to say that. I think golf's a wonderful game. But I don't have time for it right now. Maybe when we play well or get competitive."
There are just too many loose ends that have to be put in place, according to vonAppen.
For one thing, a decision still has to be made about where his Rainbows will hold their fall camp next month. VonAppen wants to conduct it on a military base - Kaneohe Marine Base, Schofield Barracks or Barbers Point.
"There's bureaucracy at our place and bureaucracy at the military places," vonAppen said. "Any of the three bases would be good. They all have something to offer."
But a lot of details still have to be worked out, including the bottom line - finances.
"It isn't that simple. But we'd like to have it resolved pretty quickly," he said.
This is also the worrisome time of the year for all football coaches. Worrying about players is no summer fun.
"You always do," he said. "Any other time of the year, they're in school. Now they're scattered to the four winds. This is a time when you lose contact with them. You're talking a period of 14 weeks."
About 70 percent of the players stop by the campus almost daily and stay in touch. Monitoring the rest, those from the mainland and neighbor islands, is difficult.
VonAppen's trying to keep in touch with his players during the summer through the printed word - a weekly newsletter written by his assistants. "The last one, on July 22, will be by yours truly," vonAppen said. "That will conclude our penpalship."
VONAPPEN will then attend the Western Athletic Conference football coaches' meeting with the media in Las Vegas, July 24-27. It'll be the expanded WAC's first big bash with all 16 coaches being in attendance for the first time.
"Las Vegas is not a place I would like to visit at that time of the year," vonAppen said. He will also be taking two Rainbow players to meet the press - senior quarterback Glenn Freitas and linebacker Doug Rosevold, a junior college redshirt.
Don't read anything into Freitas being the starting quarterback this fall just because he's going, says vonAppen. "Glenn's the older of the quarterbacks, a senior, and deserving to go."
VonAppen's also giving a lot of thought about travel arrangements for the four road games this season - at Wyoming, Fresno State, San Diego State and the Air Force Academy.
"Nobody travels the way we travel here," said vonAppen, all too aware of the difficulty of playing college football 2,500 miles away from your nearest opponent.
IDEALLY, vonAppen feels the Rainbow football team should be traveling by charter rather than by commercial flights.
"I've been battling the charter issue since I got here. I realize there's an expense consideration. But with a charter, you control your own destiny, coming and going, and kind of determine who's on the flight with you. Plus you know your equipment's on board."
Not flying by charter is a new experience for vonAppen.
"I've coached for 32 years and I've never traveled any other way than by charter. That should tell you something and we weren't out in the middle of the Pacific either."
One possibility, vonAppen hopes, is that the Rainbows can fly to the West Coast on commercial flights and then hook up with a charter from there.
VonAppen feels strongly that chartered flights would be in the best interest of student athletes, besides being a good way to instill camaraderie among the team.
"Otherwise, I've proposed, jokingly, that we forfeit the four road games and save on wear and tear."