Rainbow Wahine hire first of two assistants
By Stanley Lee
Advertiser Staff Writer
One of two vacant coaching positions on the University of Hawai'i women's basketball staff was filled yesterday.
Pat Charity was hired as Rainbow Wahine associate coach, picked from a pool of more than a dozen applicants, including former UH assistants Da Houl and Serenda Valdez.
"It's unbelieveable," said Charity, who called her friends after getting the job. "I never imagined myself being here. These jobs don't come very often."
"She knows how to run a program as a head coach, how to be an assistant, has great recruiting contacts and knows a lot of people across the country," said Rainbow Wahine head coach Jim Bolla, who was hired on July 16 as the program's sixth head coach. "I thought she was the best fit for our program right now."
Charity last served as an assistant coach at Long Beach State during the 2002-03 season under then-head coach Dallas Boycheck, Bolla's wife. Bolla got a chance to watch Charity then and already knew of her previous assistant coaching positions at UNLV, Arizona, Western Michigan and Alabama, where she helped bring in two recruiting classes ranked in the top five nationally.
"The coaching circle is pretty tight so people know about people," Bolla explained.
From 1990 to 1997, Charity was the head coach at Western Michigan, where she led the Broncos to a 74-118 overall record and 50-72 mark in the Mid-American Conference.
Charity was an honorable mention All-American for Western Michigan in 1978 and 1980 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1993. She also earned a silver medal as a member of the United States' 1977 World Games team.
She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Western Michigan.
Her duties at UH will include recruiting, scouting, scheduling and game-day coaching.
"She's very energetic," Bolla said. "I like to be able to have my coaches run on their own and do things on their own."
Bolla was hoping to fill the assistant coaching position today but can't because it is a state holiday. He hopes to hire the assistant next week. Houl and Valdez are in that candidate pool as well.
Even though the openings for the associate position closed last Wednesday and assistant position on Monday, Bolla still received calls after the deadlines and even had an application dropped off in person this week.
The associate position pays $37,620 to $67,716 annually, and the assistant job pays $22,288 to $46,392, according to the school's "Work at UH" Web page.
Meanwhile, Bolla worked on finalizing the brackets for the Rainbow Wahine Classic yesterday. The tournament, set for Thanksgiving weekend, will open the season instead of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort Invitational, which is usually held the previous weekend. That tournament has been moved to Dec. 9 to 11 with BYU and Southeast Missouri State in the field.
Reach Stanley Lee at slee@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8533.
