Thursday, November 14, 1996
Memo from Yoshida:
By Paul Arnett
We’re working on it, Fred
Star-Bulletin
University of Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida met with Fred vonAppen on Tuesday to discuss the 30-point plan proposed by the Rainbows' head coach.VonAppen had hoped to talk with Yoshida in private to offer a counterproposal, but that changed when Yoshida released his response through a five-page memo yesterday afternoon.
"There will probably be more discussions before we've finalized anything, but I thought it was important to get the message out there that the athletic department isn't just sitting on its hands," Yoshida said last night.
"I know Fred was upset with that, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. He made the 30-point plan public on Monday. And now we're responding to his needs."
VonAppen had wanted to meet with his staff and offer some other ideas before making the document public. He was upset that his charter proposal was grounded, and that Yoshida had barely scratched the surface on several other areas of concern, but he didn't want to go into detail until meeting with Yoshida.
"I'm not going to comment on any of the 30 points, either what they were or what the reaction was," vonAppen said after yesterday's practice. "We've still got a lot of ground to cover.
"I'm a little taken aback because he (Yoshida) was pissed by the contract (rollover) inquiry (that appeared in Monday's Star-Bulletin). Given that, it's interesting he would release that information.
"I'll certainly have a little chat with him about it. I don't have any comment to make about it one way or the other. I'm concerned about trying to play respectably against BYU.
"One thing that was asked for was some kind of public manifesto that indicated where we're going in the next number of years and what the long-time strategy was.
"Did you see that in the document? I didn't."
What was in the document were a series of responses - some in detail, others in only one sentence - to charter flights, facility renovations, academic support system, training table, video upgrades, fund-raising, contract extensions for assistant coaches, budget upgrades, maintenance to practice fields and other items ranging from more computers to administrative procedures.
At this time, charter flights from Honolulu to the mainland are too cost prohibitive. Next year, Hawaii has two direct flights to Las Vegas and San Jose, Calif.
The trips to Provo, Utah, and Fort Collins, Colo., will likely be half-charters, originating in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
The dressing room renovation will be completed by Aug. 1997 and the third-floor coaches offices will be done by Dec. 1 of this year.
VonAppen will be able to hire a full-time administrative assistant, but will have to wait on training room expansion and various video upgrades.
"But we've already told him he can have a training table if he wants," Yoshida said. "We can't give multiple contracts to his assistants because the Board of Regents won't approve it.
"We're looking at ways to divide compliance and academics, and we're going to purchase 20 to 25 new computers for our athletes.
"I showed him how we're working on our marketing strategies and that we have no control over the money generated by campus parking and what Aloha Stadium charges us.
"Some things we can do right now, while other things we're going to have to work on and see where they take us. But we feel like we're making substantial progress in many different areas, and we wanted to get that message out there."