The University of Hawai'i football team's wish list includes finding success in academics, recruiting and on the field.

Those wishes, it is hoped, will be fulfilled by a former UH defensive tackle and graduate assistant.

Yesterday, head coach Greg McMackin hired Tony Tuioti as the Warriors' director of player personnel. His duties include serving as a coordinator for academics and recruiting.

"I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with coach Mack and the other coaches," Tuioti said. "They're great guys."

The Warriors have not had a recruiting coordinator since Bob Wagner's tenure, when Jim Cochran filled that role for a season. Cochran, now a scout for the New York Jets, was part of the coaching staff.

Tuioti will be assuming a non-coaching position. With the demands of the NCAA's Academic Progress Report, which penalizes schools for failing to meet minimum scores, McMackin wanted a person to oversee the Warriors' classroom performances.

"The APR changed the way you recruit," Tuioti said. "A recruit can't just be the best athlete. He has to be a good athlete with good grades. I want to help set a standard here, that recruiting will be big and academics will be big. I want that to be the culture of our program."

Tuioti's background is a testament to those goals.

McMackin described Tuioti as one of the keys to the Warriors' 9-4 season in 1999. Tuioti stayed on as a graduate assistant, a position that allowed him to earn a master's degree in administration.

Tuioti was Kalaheo High's head coach in 2003 and 2004. His staff included former UH players Craig Stutzmann, Thero Mitchell, Jake Espiau, Alapai Andrews and Matt Wright.

Tuioti and his family moved to Las Vegas in the spring of 2005. He then earned a master's degree in special education at Nevada-Las Vegas.

The importance of education, he said, is "something that's been imbedded by my parents since I was small. ... I knew education would be a key for me, and it has been. There have been a lot of people who have helped me out."

Tuioti has served as defensive coordinator at Las Vegas' Silverado High School. In last year's playoffs, his team faced Chaparral High, whose offensive coordinator is Paul Nihipali, Tuioti's father-in-law.

"It was a little family feud," Tuioti said, laughing. "We didn't let the kids go to grandpa's house that week."

Tuioti and his wife, Keala, a former UH volleyball player, own a house in Hawai'i. They have six children.

"There are no more seat belts in the Yukon," he said.