Jones set to leave isles

The football coach hits the Big Island on his last day before going to his new Dallas gig

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KAILUA-KONA » Football coach June Jones said yesterday his leaving for Southern Methodist does not mean University of Hawaii football will fall on hard times.

"The school is in a position to take a positive step in the right direction. Change is hard, but sometimes it has to happen to go to the future," he said.

Jones said he does not blame fired athletic director Herman Frazier for the program's problems, and regrets that Frazier lost his job.

He said he believes UH President David McClain, Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw and acting athletic director Carl Clapp can provide effective leadership for the next coach.

Jones' final Hawaii news conference was at the Hokulia Resort on the Big Island, his favorite place in the islands.

"To me this has so much spirituality right here," he said. "The history and the future is right here. I think it's a special place. I'm an avid golfer, but when I come here all I want to do is sit here and be at peace. This is where I found peace when I came back to Hawaii."

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KAILUA-KONA » John De Fries was there nearly four decades ago when June Jones first came to Hawaii. He is with him today, on Jones' last day in the islands for now.

De Fries' family hosted Jones when he came from Portland, Ore., to play in a high school basketball tournament on Oahu in 1970. The favor was returned, as De Fries' brother, Joe, stayed with the Joneses the next holiday season.

Today, De Fries is again the host, as the CEO of the Hokulia Resort on the Kona Coast of the Big Island. Jones' last function as University of Hawaii football coach is a golf tournament for the booster club.

De Fries has been one of Jones' closest friends the past few years. He was among three confidants Jones called the night of Jan. 6 from Dallas as he tried to decide between the job at Southern Methodist and remaining at UH.

"I didn't know what call he was going to make. It was that painful. He was somewhat tormented by the whole thing," De Fries said. "I wanted him to make the call when he was rested. Decisions of this magnitude require the decision maker to be in a state of balance."

De Fries got his wish, as Jones slept a few hours. But the decision was not what Warriors fans wanted. The last-ditch effort by the state went for naught, and Jones is now a Mustang.

Maybe Jones would have decided differently if he had pondered at Hokulia instead of in a Dallas hotel room. The frustrations of facilities and funding (for which he said yesterday he does not blame fired athletic director Herman Frazier) might not have seemed insurmountable or even important.

"This was my place to reflect," Jones said yesterday on a calm, warm day at the resort's peaceful pavilion overlooking the Pacific. "What I always came here to do was not think about football. It was the only place I could go where I could absolutely just think about the beauty of Hawaii and the people and get the spiritual thing."

For Jones "the spiritual thing" is important, and it is part of why he is going to SMU. He developed traditions at UH, at the cost of tearing down the original ones, some would say. Now he wants to rebuild the Mustangs -- a storied program with a history that includes a national championship but has not been the same since not fielding a team for two seasons in the 1980s due to NCAA violations.

Anyone watching closely should not be too shocked that Jones is gone. He wanted to leave after a tumultuous 2004 season, but then an old partner rode into town.

"I was very frustrated going into 2005. If Jerry Glanville hadn't come, I wouldn't have been part of the undefeated part of it," Jones said. "Jerry made it fun again for me. He relieved a lot of the things that frustrated me. He did it with smiles and laughter."

Jones did not seem to find much joy during the just-completed 12-0 regular season. The pressure of putting it together was all-encompassing. And then the issues of lack of support from the university and the state came up again, the ones that pushed him out of Hawaii and to SMU.

"I have not had any time to enjoy the moment," he said.

Perhaps he will here before leaving today, just sitting in a chair, watching the ocean.

He can think about going from 0-12 to 12-0. Yeah, there was the Sugar Bowl loss ... but just to have gotten there was an incredible achievement.

"I feel like it's in better condition than when I came here," Jones said of the program.

There will also be some sad thoughts. He will think of Joe De Fries. When Jones tracked down his old house guest upon his return to UH, he learned De Fries, one of his first friends from Hawaii, was dying of cancer. And he will think of many players, including Mitch Farney, the young Warriors receiver who never played a down in a game. He collapsed playing basketball and died the day after Jones took the SMU job.

Jones said he wants to retire from coaching in five or six years and return to Hawaii.

But the ocean will have to wait.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning to do what I was asked to do in Dallas," he said.