Dallas Bolla, wife of University of Hawaii women's basketball coach Jim Bolla, has been hired as an assistant coach with the program.

Bolla, a former head women's basketball coach at Long Beach State, was offered the job yesterday and completed paperwork this morning, just before the team left for Hilo to play in the Bank of Hawaii Invitational in Hilo.

Under the UH Board of Regents rules against nepotism, Jim Bolla was excluded from the search, interview and hiring processes.

The department also hired former ESPN 1420 commentator Kevin Hashiro as the women's basketball director of operations.

Bolla, who also served as an assistant coach at Purdue and Louisville, was one of about 80 applicants for the job.

A committee made up of assistant athletic director for facilities Teri Chang, civil rights counselor Jill Nunokawa, UH ticket manager Walter Watanabe, and Hawaii High School Athletic Association media director Natalie Iwamoto selected and ranked five finalists and athletic director Jim Donovan conducted the final interview.

"I was kept out of the loop so I didn't know who the committee members were or who had applied for the job aside from Dallas," Jim Bolla said. "I'm glad that we were able to make both hires. We're a lot better off now that we were a week ago."

The program had been one coach short for over a year. That job, plus the newly created director of operations position, were the top priorities identified by Bolla during his initial meeting with Donovan earlier this year.

Dallas Bolla is expected to help with recruiting and player development. While she will have to wait until she completes a requisite NCAA exam to begin recruiting, her official signing was timely given that assistant coach Pat Charity, who also worked under Dallas Bolla at Long Beach State, is on the Mainland to attend a funeral. Charity is expected to return by Saturday.