Dobelle sees UH sanctions
as absent ‘common sense’He says UH coaches have been diligent
in collecting data on foreign players
Only the NCAA really knows if it is using the University of Hawaii as an example of what can happen if you don't follow eligibility rules regarding foreign athletes to the letter, UH President Evan Dobelle said yesterday.
But Dobelle doesn't rule out the idea that the NCAA's stripping of Hawaii's 2002 men's volleyball championship Friday could be meant as a message to the entire membership.
Dobelle addressed that issue and several others involving UH sports at yesterday's meeting of the Honolulu Quarterback Club.
Is Hawaii an example?
"That's a question better answered by (the NCAA)," Dobelle said. "All I know is, we're appealing it because it doesn't meet my common-sense test. Slap me on the wrist for $5,000 for the season, but I couldn't have gotten through the season like I did without getting to the finals. How do you have two different rules? If you don't take away my season and that's the only way you get to the tournament, how do you take away the tournament? But again, it comes down to if this young man had told us what he had done, he would have had to sit the first four to eight games."
The young man in question -- though no one at UH will officially acknowledge it -- is star hitter Costas Theocharidis, from Greece. Theocharidis was determined by UH and NCAA investigations to have played in 22 games among professional players in Greece before he enrolled at UH.
Some believe that because men's volleyball is not a high-profile sport nationally, this was an opportunity for the NCAA to hit hard on the issue of foreign athlete eligibility. Dobelle said he doesn't think as heavy a penalty would be doled out for a similar situation in a more popular sport.
"Are you telling me that two years ago when (UH basketball player Predrag) Savovic had to sit eight games, that if we had won the NCAA Championship, Final Four, the year before, they would've taken away the title? I just can't imagine," Dobelle said. "But is volleyball just off the radar screen enough that they are sending a signal? I don't know."
In addition to Savovic and Theocharidis, UH basketball players Haim Shimonovich and Tony Akpan and volleyball player Pedro Azenha have been penalized for playing among professionals.
Dobelle said he believes UH coaches are diligent in collecting background information while recruiting internationals, and he does not want them to stop looking at foreign athletes.
Regardless of whether it is the NCAA's intention, its announcement Friday got everyone's attention, Dobelle said.
"I think in many ways every coach and every athletic director in the country is perhaps a little startled by this," he said. "And (UH) is taking a real close look to make sure we have translators and cultural understanding of exactly what went on so we don't have these kind of complications again."
Dobelle spoke on other issues yesterday:
>> Recruiting local athletes.
"I like to think we could get every young man and woman to come. Right now there's a young woman from La Pietra (Alicia Arnott) nobody saw, and she's starting (for the UH volleyball team). Coach (Dave Shoji) was watching local talent.
"I would have loved to have (Iolani star) Derrick Low playing basketball for us. He was in my office. I was trying to convince him."
(Low has made an oral commitment to Washington State.)
>> Athletic director Herman Frazier's performance after 13 months on the job.
"The coaches evaluate him very highly. He seems to be a person of even temperament, enthusiasm, credibility. I find him to have done an excellent job."
>> Where UH will play home football games in five to 10 years.
"I would like to have an engineering study done of Aloha Stadium. Before I would even consider asking anyone for resources, I need to understand if Aloha Stadium is something that needs to be retrofitted or do you need a new stadium. I haven't seen an engineering study done."
>> Criticism of academic progress by football players.
"Football has a higher graduation rate at Manoa than the rest of the student body. Fifty-four percent of the students at Manoa graduate; the football team is at 65 percent."
