Next A.D. needs to be up to speed
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
We don't know yet who the new University of Hawai'i athletic director will be, but we now know who it shouldn't be.
It should not be someone who is going to require a significant period to grow into the position or come up with a vision for the program. It can't be someone who is going to have to be held by the hand. It shouldn't be someone unfamiliar with Hawai'i or the Western Athletic Conference.
That much was made clear by Friday's announcement of Peter Englert as the next Manoa chancellor and the athletic department's new immediate superior.
In filling the chancellor's position there for the first time in 16 years, UH is fortunate in getting someone of demonstrated strength in building and administering academic research programs, somebody with a global perspective who is adept at raising money. All of which are necessities given where UH is and where it wants to go.
It is an overflowing, demanding plate that greets Englert. And while overseeing athletics is now a component of the new job description, it is far from being either the only one or the most important one at an institution where the overriding mission is academics.
It is good news that Englert, who takes office Aug. 1, apparently has an interest in athletics. It is said he was a triathlete until a knee injury hampered him, and that he followed intercollegiate athletics at San Jose State and intramural sports at Victoria University in New Zealand and the University of Cologne in Germany.
Still, under the structure outlined by UH President Evan Dobelle, the chancellor becomes responsible for important hands-on athletic roles formerly handled by presidents. Englert, for example, will take UH's seat on the Western Athletic Conference Board of Directors, the body that sets policy and makes all the major decisions involving the conference. He will be the only person in a non-presidential position to sit on the board in the conference's 40-year history.
It was the board that disastrously expanded the WAC to 16 teams in 1994. It was the board that dealt with the breakup, expanding again in 2000. It is the group that signed television and bowl contracts and will set schedules and decide if Hawai'i has to pay travel subsidies.
By all reports, Englert is the kind of sharp mind and persuasive administrator who should be able to grow into the position. Still, it is going to take time to get familiar with the NCAA, the WAC and the lay of the land. In the interim, UH might have to consider conference membership and a dozen other major decisions.
With a president whose previous NCAA experience was on the Division III level, and a new chancellor who must learn NCAA, WAC and institutional ropes, it is a necessity that the next UH athletic director be someone not only ready to hit the ground running but have a vision for and familiarity with the terrain.
