Posted on: Tuesday, May 22, 2001

Wilton will meet with Yoshida over contract

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i volleyball coach Mike Wilton, whose contract will expire May 31, is scheduled to meet with UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida on Thursday.

"He said, 'Let's visit,' so we're going to visit," said Wilton, who recently completed his ninth season as the Warriors' head coach.

Even if an agreement on an extension can be worked out, the contract Wilton signed last October will lapse. The UH Board of Regents, which has final approval on contract matters for coaches, will not meet until mid-June.

Wilton is eligible for a five-year contract based on the language in the standard agreement between the coaches and the administration. In part, the agreement says, eligibility for a multi-year contract is extended to anyone who has been a head coach at UH for at least the last five years and has had reasonable success during that time.

But the last two years, UH athletic department heads have been reluctant to offer Wilton a multi-year contract.

In 1997, Wilton was awarded a rollover — in which a year is added to his contract — giving him another three seasons to coach. The following year, the regents replaced the rollover system with fixed-year contracts. Last June 1, Wilton was without a contract. He was not offered another one until last October.

Speculation that Wilton will one day succeed Brigham Young coach Carl McGown — talk the 61-year-old McGown has kept alive by identifying Wilton as a good choice — has not always been greeted warmly by the UH administration.

But, Wilton said, "I'm not starting those rumors."

He said that in 1997, when the job of McGown's top assistant was upgraded to a full-time position, McGown "called me up and asked me if I would be interested. (BYU is) where I received my master's degree. I did think about it, but I stayed (at UH). That's been the end of it, as far as I'm concerned."