UH-Hilo continues search

A record 361 applicants have applied for the vacant University of Hawaii at Hilo head men’s basketball coach position and the goal to have someone on board by early June is still within reach, according to athletic director Dexter Irvin.

“The review committee has been working hard and gotten down to about 160 applicants who met the minimum requirements for the job,” Irvin said Tuesday. “The committee members will meet again next week and try to get it down to 10 or so, and then will do Skype interviews on May 15-16. Once they do that, they’ll check references and hopefully be able to make a recommendation to me on May 20 with their top four, five or six candidates.”

Once Irvin gets that ranking list from the five-member committee, headed by UH-Hilo AD for compliance Pam Knox, he’ll decide to either bring in the finalists for an interview or interview them on Skype.

“By the last week of May, I hope to make a recommendation to the chancellor,” Irvin said. “I also hope to make an offer to the top candidate by June 1. We’ve got to make sure all our our paperwork is in order so I can negotiate with the choice to get the hiring done.

“We’d like to have the new coach on board by the first week of June, but that’s contingent on what that person has going on. We’d like to have the new coach by the first week in June, but we might not be able to get that person here until July 1.”

Soccer

Irvin also noted that the Board of Regents will meet May 16 and hopefully approve a UH-Hilo move to hire a Director of Soccer.

“That person would oversee both men’s and women’s soccer,” Irvin said. “Once we get approval from the Board of Regents, we’ll look to go ahead and hire the Director of Soccer as soon as we can.”

The current Vulcan soccer coaches are Jeffrey “Ziggy” Korytoski (men) and Unity Beddingfield (women).