HPU chooses Dung as athletic director
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
The assistant athletic director position was vacated when Sellitto's longtime assistant, Russell Dung, was selected as his successor yesterday. Dung, 48, will head the basketball program and serve as athletic director effective July 1.
HPU has narrowed down the field for the senior woman administrator position to three candidates. Volleyball head coach Tita Ahuna is considered the front-runner for the highest-ranking female administrator in the athletic department.
Ahuna, a former All-American at the University of Hawai'i, guided the Sea Warriors to two national championships in three years, earning NCAA Division II Coach of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. She begins her seventh season as head coach in August.
In addition to assisting Dung with the day-to-day operations in the department, the senior woman administrator will have the added responsibility of overseeing gender equity and Title IX compliance.
Dung's appointment to head coach has been expected since last year when Sellitto announced his retirement at the end of the 2001-02 season. But taking over as athletic director was a recent development during contact negotiations.
Dung signed separate one-year contracts for each position. Sellitto, who was supposed to remain as athletic director for one year, will now serve as a consultant for the department.
According to school officials, HPU did not recruit any candidates for Sellitto's vacancy, although the school did receive and consider several unsolicited resumes.
"The president did consider a search," said HPU vice president Rick Stepien, who oversees university relations. "But the president based his decision on Tony's confidence that Russell could maintain the high-profile and winning tradition of HPU basketball. He made a very strong recommendation to the president that Russell could do that. And when you have the only coach in Hawai'i history who's brought home a national championship in basketball make a recommendation like that, that carries some weight."
In 30 years of coaching together, Dung and Sellitto took Maryknoll to a state high school title and HPU to the 1993 NAIA National Championship.
"I'm really grateful that (the school) has confidence in me to take over the position because those are big shoes to fill," said Dung, who helped the Sea Warriors to a 295-136 overall record over the past 14 seasons. "I've got a great staff in the basketball and in the athletic office. Everything will be the same. I won't change anything. I'll try to keep continuity in the program."
Strength and conditioning coach Mel Miyamoto retired with Sellitto at the end of last season. Dung said he has a replacement for the position pending approval from HPU president Chatt Wright.
