Posted on: Friday, November 5, 2004

UH assistants await bonuses

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i athletic department has not paid bonuses to the football team's assistant coaches for the Warriors' participation in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl last Christmas.

The nine full-time assistant coaches from the 2003 staff — including Tyson Helton, who left to accept a coaching job with Memphis in March — are promised the equivalent of one month's salary if the Warriors qualify for a postseason bowl. Based on the staff's salary scale, the bonuses range from $5,000 to up to $8,333 per coach.

Head coach June Jones said "that's not my thing to comment on," but acknowledged it was "accurate" to report his assistants had not received their bonuses.

The athletic department is in a financial slump, finishing in the red for three consecutive fiscal years. In an address to the Board of Regents in July, athletic director Herman Frazier promised to deliver a balanced budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2005.

Jones, who has lobbied for the school to pay the bonuses, said, when "there's no money, there's no money."

Jones acknowledged that his football program has been asked to cut expenses. Asked how much he had to trim from his budget, Jones said, "I don't keep up with that. I just do what they tell me to do."

Former UH coach Bob Wagner advocated bonuses for reaching postseason bowls because the coaches are assuming added work.

Division I-A football programs usually use a portion of their bowl appearance fees to pay for the bonuses. Most schools distribute the bonuses within a month after the bowl game. When the Warriors qualified for the O'ahu Bowl in 1999 and Hawai'i Bowl in 2002, the bonuses were paid within four months after those games.

But UH officials did not withhold money for the bonuses from the 2003 Hawai'i Bowl appearance fee. Because the bonuses were not paid during the fiscal year that ended this past June 30, they must be counted — if they are paid at all — as part of this fiscal year's budget.

In a June 14 e-mail to athletic department officials, UH president Evan Dobelle said he would find the money to pay for the bonuses. The next day, Dobelle was fired.

Curnan, Moe still nursing injuries

Linebackers Ikaika Curnan (sprained right ankle) and Tanuvasa Moe (strained hamstring) will not start in tomorrow's game against Louisiana Tech. Neither competed in contact drills yesterday.

"He'll get some (playing) time, but not much," Jones said of Curnan.

Jones said Moe is "really iffy."

Freshman Brad Kalilimoku is expected to start in place of Moe at weakside linebacker.

Jones said freshman C.J. Allen-Jones "is in the rotation" at strongside linebacker.

Cornerback Abraham Elimimian is expected to start, despite suffering from a sore right foot, sprained right ankle and strained right hamstring.

"He'll play," Jones said. "He always does."

LaTech to play tourist before playing game

The soggy Louisiana Tech football team arrived yesterday to an overcast Honolulu.

The Bulldogs abbreviated practices Monday, Tuesday and yesterday because of storms in Ruston, La.

"That's not a good situation," coach Jack Bicknell said, "but there's not much you can do about that. We don't have an indoor (football) facility."

This is the fifth of seven road trips for the Bulldogs this season. They played non-conference games at nationally ranked Miami, Tennessee and Auburn, losing by a combined score of 142-24.

Playing top schools is "fun in a lot of ways," Bicknell said. "It's not fun getting your butt kicked. But if you're a Division I coach or player, you want to try and get into those places. I've always dreamed of going to LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, all of those places — not necessarily as an opposing coach. I wish I was tail-gating. But it's college football. It's tradition. It's an honor to play at those places."

Bicknell said "Hawai'i is a tough place to play because it's so beautiful. Some of our kids haven't seen an ocean before, and we're staying near Waikiki Beach."

Bicknell said he will allow his players a few hours to swim and play tourist. "If you go all the way to Hawai'i," he said, "you're not going to not look at the beach. You give your kids some time to experience the beauty of it. But then we've got to get re-focused on a real tough football game."

Bicknell said he does expect any problems with the four-hour time difference between Ruston and Honolulu. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:15 p.m. Central time.

"Half of these kids are up until 2:30 in the morning, anyway," Bicknell said. "Maybe it's a factor for the coaches who are ready to go to sleep. These players are up at night."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.

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