Big Island's Lino offered Saint Louis coaching job
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Former Waiakea High School football coach Tim Lino has been offered the same position at longtime power Saint Louis School, but is not likely to accept the job, The Advertiser has learned.
• July 7, 2001: Cal Lee announces he will step down as head coach following the season, which ends with a 21-14 state championship loss to Kahuku. Lee's career record is 241-32-5 in 21 seasons, including 19 ILH championships and 16 O'ahu Prep Bowl or state championships. • Feb. 28, 2002: Longtime assistant Delbert Tengan says he has decided to not accept an offer to take over Lee's position as head football coach. • March 19, 2002: Tengan reverses field and accepts the head football coaching position. "A lot of people asked me to reconsider," Tengan said. "I had some long talks and did a lot of praying. Then I had a change of heart." • April 22, 2003: Tengan resigns after one season, which culminated in a 34-15 state championship victory over Castle. Tengan said "there is no one particular reason why" he decided to step down, although he cited the heavy demands of being both head football coach and head basketball coach. • June 4 (approximate), 2003: Quarterbacks coach John Hao is "approached" about accepting the head coaching position, but turns down the opportunity. • June 17, 2003: Former Waiakea High coach Tim Lino is offered the head coaching job. • Today: Lino is expected to decide whether to accept Saint Louis' offer.
Saint Louis athletic director Cal Lee, who conducted the interview and made the recommendation to Saint Louis president Father Allen DeLong, refused to confirm the offer last night.
Crusader chronology
But DeLong said in a statement issued yesterday afternoon that "an offer has been made to a second candidate for the new hire of a football coach," and The Advertiser has learned that the candidate is Lino.
Two weeks ago, Saint Louis quarterbacks coach John Hao was approached about the job, but he turned it down.
Lino is a former college assistant and a head coach at an Arizona high school.
But he is not likely to accept the job, either, because he currently is principal of Ke Kula 'O 'Ehunuikaimalino — a Hawaiian immersion school in Kealakekua, Kona — and there is no faculty or staff position available at Saint Louis that would give him a comparable salary. Lino and his wife have five children.
Lee, while acknowledging Saint Louis would prefer an on-campus coach, emphasized that the football opening does not automatically come with a full-time staff or faculty position attached.
"The job, in itself, is to coach football," Lee said. "It's not, 'OK, if you coach football, we'll give you this and this and this ...' "
The Advertiser learned that a staff position soon will be available in the athletic department, but the salary is believed to be nowhere near that of a school principal or high-ranking administrator.
Lee said that if a candidate — in this case, Lino — should turn down the school's offer, the process "will start all over." That means bringing in another person or two for an interview and making another offer.
The Saint Louis job has been vacant since April 22, when Delbert Tengan resigned after one season. Practice for the summer pass league is scheduled to start July 1, and Lee said Saint Louis will enter a team.
"It's not gonna affect that," Lee said. "We have a couple more people in mind, and we hope to have a coach before July 1. That's normally when we start anyway."
Lino, 43, played high school football at Kamehameha (Class of '77) and walked on at the University of Hawai'i before graduating from Brigham Young. He was a graduate assistant on BYU's 1984 national championship team and became an assistant at Arizona Western (junior) College.
Lino also was an assistant at Castle High School and Provo (Utah) High School before becoming a head coach at Cibola (Ariz.) High School from 1988-90. He then served as a graduate assistant at UH in 1991 and took over as head coach at Waiakea, where he compiled an overall record of 44-20 with three Big Island Interscholastic Federation championships in five seasons.
Lino then stepped down to go into administration. This is his 11th year in the Department of Education.
