[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
UH dealing with
NCAA decisionFrazier says they have to
"take our medicine
and move on"
In the end, it will not matter. No NCAA ruling will take away what was accomplished two years ago at Rec Hall on the Penn State campus.
"I'm always going to tell people that we won," said Kimo Tuyay, the setter on the Hawaii men's volleyball team that defeated Pepperdine in 2002 for the national title. "It will always stay with me.
"They're going to take away the banner, but we still have the rings to show proof. Everyone who watched the game knows. We won on that day. Our focus will always be on the game that got played that day."
Tuyay was stoic during yesterday's news conference announcing the denial of UH's appeal. The body governing college sports had stripped UH of its first men's team title in school history on Sept. 5 over the eligibility issue regarding two-time NCAA Player of the Year Costas Theocharidis.
It was a ruling that the university continued to appeal for some eight months. On at least three occasions, UH was asked by the NCAA Committee on Appeals for further documentation regarding Theocharidis, a Greek national and the 2001 and 2003 player of the year.
The NCAA ruled that he competed in a professional league and misled UH about the extent of his playing career. However, the NCAA did not rule that UH would have to forfeit any matches in which the outside hitter played from 2000 to '03 other than the 2002 national semifinal and final.
Little will also change in the way the UH men's volleyball coaching staff recruits international athletes.
"It will make it a little more time-consuming in the way we look at the paperwork," coach Mike Wilton said. "We did what we thought we needed to do (regarding Theocharidis). We followed the rules.
"What I'd like to see is a clearing house for international players like we have for (U.S. high school) players. I guess what bothers me is that Carl (McGown, former BYU coach) said, 'If they pull yours, they should pull ours from 1999 and 2001.' We won't ask that they (the NCAA) go back. But it's possible that a lot of titles might be in question."
Theocharidis is not happy about the outcome.
"Why have I done something wrong? I was given the chance to play with the senior team in my hometown," Theocharidis said last night. "I didn't accept any money. I didn't sign with an agent.
" Why am I a professional? What about all those playing in the AVP?. Why aren't those people playing for their national teams not professionals?
It's over as far as UH is concerned.
"We knew our day was coming," UH athletic director Herman Frazier said. "The mere fact that it came today (three days after the school hosted the NCAA men's volleyball final) doesn't surprise me.
"But at this point, we have to take our medicine and move on. It's tough when you're talking about young people achieving their goals. There's no easy way to accept this. I'm one of those ultimate optimists and if we didn't think we didn't have a chance, we wouldn't have tried."
The ruling doesn't bode well for Lewis University, which defeated Brigham Young for the 2003 championship. The Flyers sat two All-Americans this season -- J.R. Martins (Brazil) and Gustavo Meyer (Mexico) -- because of eligibility questions similar to that of Theocharidis.
"We haven't heard anything, but (Hawaii's ruling) is an unfavorable response," Lewis coach Dave Deuser said in a telephone interview last night. "I'm thoroughly disgusted on the behalf of UH. And I think it's no coincidence that this comes 48 hours after the final four.
"The NCAA is all about the money, the March Madness in basketball. Our championship is gone. I'm already resigned to it. Like Hawaii, they can't take away the feeling we had when winning."
Deuser said he spoke with Wilton on Monday about the NCAA cases.
"Our hopes were that the NCAA would take a serious look at the root of the (amateur) problem," Deuser said. "We thought this was going to be a precedent. Our worst fears came true.
"There are so many issues with other sports like football and basketball that the NCAA is ignoring. It's unbelievable what they would do to non-revenue sports like ours."