PACIFIC WEST CONFERENCE
Hogue takes over PacWest
Former state senator Bob Hogue has been named commissioner of the Pacific West Conference.
Hogue, who has more than 30 years in radio and television broadcasting, calls play-by-play for the conference's sports on Oceanic and says one of his first priorities will be to expand coverage.
"We can remember going to an HPU-BYUH game and seeing a packed house every time," Hogue said. "We have got to find a way to reinvigorate that excitement, and we do that by making people aware."
The PacWest is made up of Hawaii's four NCAA Division II schools and three schools on the mainland. It has been competing as an independent since Montana State-Billings and Western New Mexico left the conference in 2005.
The conference will be fully active next year when two mainland schools lose their provisional status. The PacWest has dominated NCAA Division II in women's tennis and volleyball, with nine national titles in those two sports since 1998. The conference also sponsors basketball, cross country, soccer, men's golf and women's softball.
Hogue takes over for Woody Hahn, who has been the commissioner of the conference since its inception in 1992.
Hahn was based in Billings, Mont., while Hogue will run the conference out of Kailua.
"It's going to be exciting," Hogue said. "I hope to hit the ground running to raise the awareness of the conference and get the automatic berths back. I plan on visiting all of the different schools soon and beginning to build the relationships that are so important."