Tuesday, November 17, 1998
VonAppen gets
meeting with
Yoshida and
Mortimer
They'll discuss the UH
By Paul Arnett
football team's future after the
season-ending game against Michigan
Star-BulletinHawaii head coach Fred vonAppen has asked athletic director Hugh Yoshida to set up a meeting with president Kenneth Mortimer the Monday after the Michigan game to discuss the future of the football program.
VonAppen wasn't sure which issues would be discussed or what decisions would be reached among the powerful Hawaii triad.
"But we need some open, frank dialogue to make sure we're all on the same page," vonAppen said yesterday. "I believe there are plenty issues that need to be addressed, and I'm sure Hugh and Dr. Mortimer have some things they want to talk to me about.
"I told Hugh (yesterday) during our weekly meeting and he told me he'd get it on the docket. The man is taking some heat. I'm sympathetic to that.
"We're a program that hasn't improved to anyone's satisfaction. But there are a lot of reasons for that, which have been discussed at length before."
VonAppen said he didn't feel as if he were under siege, despite what newspaper and television broadcasts might report. He is in the first year of a three-year contract, and plans to honor that if allowed, and if some changes take place.
"We have to decide whether we want to do it like everyone else and that's going to take commitment on many levels," vonAppen said. "You can fire the coach, but that doesn't necessarily mean things are going to automatically get better.
"To me, it's time to fish or cut bait. My staff and I don't need to go through this routine every year. It's hurting our team and it's damaging our local recruiting."
UH officials have to weigh whether keeping vonAppen will result in some overdue payoff and stop the bleeding of declining season-ticket sales, or to eat another $250,000 contract as they did in 1996 by firing Bob Wagner.
Unlike Wagner, vonAppen said he wouldn't take it personally. He knows this is strictly bottom-line business.
"It's going to be like the WAC deal and the eight teams that left," vonAppen said. "A lot of people, including some in our own administration, took it personally.
"But it was business. They thought the only way they could survive was by forming their own league. Time will tell if they were right.
"To me, this administration has to do the same thing. Do they fire us and start over again, or do they keep us and believe we'll get the job done? Simple as that."
Yoshida was reportedly upset with the play of the team in last Saturday's embarrassing loss at Fresno State.
VonAppen thought a big part of the problem was that injuries forced young players, who weren't ready for prime time, into duty.
VonAppen realizes that Yoshida and Mortimer may say he can stay, but only if certain members of his staff were shown the door. VonAppen doesn't adhere to that way of thinking.
"I'm not going to be told who I fire and who I keep," vonAppen said. "That's my decision. I knew a coach once at Virginia Tech who refused to fire an assistant named George Seifert. He wound up resigning over it.
"I'm the one charged with hiring and firing, and which direction we take as a program. In two weeks, we will all have a better idea of what the future holds."
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