The f-word around lower campus at the University of Hawaii these days is facilities. You might not agree with this if you are strictly a spectator of arena sports, since the Stan Sheriff Center is a fine venue for basketball and volleyball … good enough for the L.A. Lakers, good enough for Olympic training, good enough for the volleyball final four (I’m not among those who say it should be here every year, but yes, certainly on a rotating basis).
No, we’re talking more about workout and locker-room facilities, specifically for the football team. When the new head coach whispers his hesitancy in showing the locker room to potential recruits, you know you have a problem.
A problem the governor vows to fix.
“Whatever you need in terms of facilities, you’re going to get it,” said Neil Abercrombie, while introducing that new head coach, Norm Chow, last week at the Downtown Athletic Club.
Upper campus might like a piece of that action, too, and is just as deserving — just not as high-profile. The DOE and any number of other state entities with crumbling infrastructure might have taken note of that statement, as well.
Apparently, Abercrombie doesn’t prescribe to the philosophy of under promise and over deliver. But what politician does? You go where the audience is and you tell it what it wants to hear.
FOUR YEARS ago, we were shown pretty pictures of what Cook Field would become, thanks to a $5 million donation from the T.C. Ching Foundation and $5 million in matching state funds. The expected completion date was this December for the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
Renovations of the women’s locker room and the Nagatani Academic Center are under way, but we still only have pictures of the Ching facility.
The bid process is ongoing, according to Teri Wilhelm Chang, the UH associate athletic director in charge of facilities. So the end of 2013 — barring additional delays — is more realistic. That means Chow can show next year’s potential recruits some construction (maybe) and those the following year some actual completed structures (maybe).
As for the locker room, Chang said that after a meeting with athletic director Jim Donovan, it has been moved to a front burner. There’s no timeline yet for a much-needed renovation.
“It’s definitely a separate thing (from the Ching Complex project),” Chang said. “But it’s also definitely a priority for us, and we’re going to work with the Legislature and upper campus to get it done.”
So there is movement. As always with state projects, will it be fast enough? Facilities help win recruiting battles, and that’s what UH football is going to need to be a winner in the Mountain West Conference.
The ongoing challenge is that athletic-facilities improvement never ends in the current environment of Division I college sports. No one stops building — that is, if they want to remain competitive.
If recruiting is the lifeblood of a college football program, then facilities are the bones and muscle.
