StarBulletin.com

Saint Louis hire may already be on campus


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POSTED: Friday, April 23, 2010

There's no middle ground for the Jacksonville Jaguars in their reach for Tyson Alualu with the 10th pick of the draft yesterday. They'll eventually look either brilliant or foolish.

It's definitely the latter right now for Alualu's high school alma mater. Saint Louis still doesn't have a coach.

It's been months since the murmurs began that John Hao would be replaced. It's been a week since new athletic director Ed Paola said he expected to have a new coach in place.

Folks in Crusaderland (plenty of them) tell us this: 'Iolani offensive coordinator Joel Lane was offered the job. The former Saint Louis star quarterback wanted to accept, but the pay—a bit north of 30K a year to be coach and assistant AD—was not enough for him to take care of his family. Then there was a feeler sent Ron Lee's way, but the University of Hawaii receivers coach quickly ended that.

Meanwhile, longtime Saint Louis teacher and former football and basketball head coach Delbert Tengan was headed toward the 'Iolani staff.

Now there's a movement afoot to re-install Tengan as head coach at Saint Louis (football, that is). He's not answering his phone, but other sources say he could and should get the job.

“;I don't know if they've offered him it, but I think they've got the guy right there. There's no question in my mind,”; Lee said. “;All they need to do is show him a little love.”;

Tengan replaced legendary Cal Lee as head coach in 2001, and after winning a state championship he stepped down to focus on being head basketball coach. He became football coach again in 2004, but when Ulima Afoa took over as athletic director after the 2007 season, Tengan ended up coaching neither sport—despite going 22-2 in football in his last two seasons. And Saint Louis has passed on Tengan at least twice as an AD candidate.

“;Someone just needs to take charge and do what's right for the kids,”; Ron Lee said.

Hard to disagree that the best candidate is probably right there on campus, teaching P.E., the guy who coached the 10th pick in the NFL Draft.

» Gotta love it when players hand out doughnuts to fans waiting to buy tickets for their playoff match. For that reason—not to mention the quality of its play—the UH men's volleyball team deserves a big crowd for its playoff match tomorrow against Pepperdine at the Stan Sheriff Center.

» A 68-team NCAA basketball tournament might seem strange ... and it is. But the number makes much more sense than the current 65 or the 96 that seemed like a done deal.

Now there will be four “;play-in”; or “;first-round”; games, one in each region.

Should've been done a long time ago, instead of having that one tacked-on game because the NCAA needed to get in two more automatic qualifiers and just allowing for two fewer at-large entries was not considered an option.

» Tony Akpan was a UH basketball and football fan favorite. After finishing his college athletic career at UH in 2005, he became a wheatgrass farmer in Ashland, Ore. He and his wife have two children, Tobias and Mayen.

Akpan's up at 4 a.m. to start work during the winter months. Other times of the year he sleeps in until 5.

“;That's one thing football got me prepared for,”; said Akpan, noting UH's early morning practices. Fans can catch up with him on Facebook at “;Anthony Robin Akpan.”;

Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.