Posted on: Thursday, June 6, 2002

UH might relax ban on other banners

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

This indeed might turn out to be a banner year for the University of Hawai'i.

Athletic department officials are reconsidering a policy that allows only UH arena teams that win national championships to hang celebratory banners in the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine volleyball team, which won four national titles, the last in 1988, is the only one of UH's four sports programs to have commemorative banners.

UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he is willing to lower the requirements. In his plan, a UH team that wins a conference title or qualifies for an NCAA tournament would be allowed to hang a banner. That would open the way for the men's basketball team, which won the Western Athletic Conference last season, and the women's basketball team, which has qualified for five NCAA tournaments in Vince Goo's 15 seasons as head coach.

"It's something we're looking to get done before the start of school (Aug. 26)," Yoshida said.

The department policy on banners was implemented as a way of limiting clusters of banners.

But after the Warrior volleyball team won the school's first men's national team championship last month, thus meeting the requirement for a banner, coach Mike Wilton suggested that the other arena teams also should receive banners for their league titles and NCAA tournament appearances.

UH president Evan Dobelle and Yoshida agreed. "We're going to look at it and get it done," Yoshida said.

UH officials also will discuss Wilton's recommendation of increasing the size of the Rainbow Wahine volleyball banners, as well as ordering larger American and state flags.

"Every time we sing the national anthem or 'Hawai'i Pono'i' I think, 'something is wrong with this, because the flags aren't big enough,' " Wilton said. "It's the same thing with (Wahine volleyball coach) Dave Shoji's washcloth banners. I think his banners should be bigger."