Posted on: Thursday, May 17, 2001

UH delays start of women's paddling program

Advertiser Staff

Citing a lack of money, University of Hawai'i athletic director Hugh Yoshida said the school will not start an intercollegiate women's paddling program until at least the 2002-2003 academic year.

The program was to debut on a limited basis in the coming school year, Yoshida said, "but we didn't meet the revenue projections of all of our sports" this fiscal year. Football, men's basketball, men's volleyball and women's volleyball are UH's only profitable sports.

While Yoshida said recent cost-cutting measures will enable the athletic department to come close to meeting its $16 million annual budget, there is not enough money to pay for another sports program. UH added women's track and field this year.

"The finances are pretty tight," Yoshida said, "but we plan to add another program down the road."

Yoshida said the addition of track helped the athletic department fulfill its five-year plan, set in 1996, of moving closer to gender equity. He said the department has improved academic, athletic and financial support for female student-athletes.

Still, he said, another sport is needed to balance the sports opportunities between male and female student-athletes. He said he does not want to drop any of the men's eight sports. UH competes in 10 women's sports and co-ed sailing.

Yoshida said he reviewed several sports — crew, bowling, lacrosse — before settling on paddling, which is not an NCAA sport. But Yoshida said paddling would count as an intercollegiate sport if the team participated in national regattas.