JUNE JONES

CATALUNA'S COLUMN HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD

With "the team was not overrated, but they were underprepared and that was Jones' fault," Lee Cataluna hit the nail on the head in her Jan. 8 column.

Even those who are not football experts could see the Georgia team had been coached to "get Brennan," and the Hawai'i team had not been coached to prevent it.

The Georgia coach was successful. They "got" Brennan.

The Hawai'i coach failed.

COACHING IS ABOUT WINNING, NOT 'OHANA

My, June Jones' departure has Lee Cataluna wound up!

Once again "'ohana" and the Hawaiian way is mixed up with hard-nosed professional sports figures whose job is getting more wins than losses.

Ms. Cataluna, 'ohana has nothing to do with it. "Daddy" didn't leave the kids with no soap and tattered carpets, his bosses did, and hopefully won't again.

What he did leave them with was a legacy of winning. Hopefully his "more local" replacement will be able to re-create the past. Don't count on it.

No, the Sugar Bowl appearance was not pretty. Don't blame it on June Jones, blame it on the fact that Hawai'i has so historically been underfunded that once they actually faced an 800-pound gorilla, the outcome was inevitable. They were not undercoached, they were overwhelmed.

Don't pull the "local" or "'ohana" card. It doesn't wash. When you have a "local" coach and everyone is "'ohana" again, make sure you check the win column against the loss column.

Professional and college-level coaching is a business, and a hard one at that.

Next time you are offered more in every way to move to a different newspaper, by all means consider your 'ohana first.

OTHER UH FACILITIES ALSO NEED IMPROVING

University of Hawai'i officials somehow managed to offer a $1.5 million contract, as well as make a promise to upgrade the athletic facilities, to keep a football coach who ended up leaving anyway.

On his way out, he told us that the reason why he left was because of lack of loyalty from the administration.

Can we, the loyal students of UH, expect to see that same kind of money for our own demands?

It's downright embarrassing to know that my school still has some of the worst dorms in the nation, a library that is infamous for flooding, substandard equipment for every department and, yes, deplorable facilities that include (but are not limited to) athletics. The full list of grievances extend well past what I can fit in a letter to the editor.

How can UH find the money to appeal to a football coach but not find the money to keep its true benefactors, and by that I mean the students, satisfied with decent learning conditions? Talk about lack of loyalty.

Come on, administration. I'll always be loyal. I promise I'll never go away to SMU. Now can you please do something to fix my beloved alma mater already?

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS REQUIRES REAL PLANNING

The only thing more unfortunate than June Jones' departure from the University of Hawai'i football program is the idea that Hawai'i will never have a competitive football program again.

It was encouraging to read the words of quarterback Tyler Graunke that "with or without June Jones the program continues."

There will be a transition period, but if Jones' time here meant anything, then the legacy he created should not leave with him but should endure.

He gave the people of Hawai'i a gift, a winning football program. If we cherish the gift he gave us, we will take care of it, support it and nurture it. We will take it further than Jones did while he was here. That's the appreciation we can show him.

In order to move forward, though, responsibility must be accepted and changes must be made. Saying that in trying to keep Jones here, "we gave it our best shot" is not completely accurate. The reality of that statement is analogous to saying, "We didn't show up to practice this whole time, but we're going to play our best now that we're here."

Planning for success requires actual planning. Let us upgrade the facilities, increase the compensation for assistant coaches and recruit the next "winningest" coach of Warrior football.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEED INCREASED FUNDING, TOO

It is not my intent to diminish the accomplishments of former University of Hawai'i head football coach June Jones, or any player, past or present. I am just not a fan of college or professional sports.

However, we find ourselves at an important crossroads. With the departures of coach Jones and Herman Frazier and the need to spend countless hundreds of thousands of dollars rebuilding UH athletics, let's consider something more important.

When I hear of state teachers having to reach into their own pockets to buy school supplies, when students have to share textbooks, when state schools are in need of repair and, most important, when our state's teachers are not paid what they are worth, isn't all that money better invested elsewhere, on something that benefits the many instead of the few?

UH CANNOT ABANDON ALL OF ITS LOYAL FANS

As a loyal fan who spent thousands of dollars on UH this season, including a trip to New Orleans, I am begging the University of Hawai'i to be loyal to all of us in Hawai'i and not kill our program by not committing money and energy to the program.

It is important to bring in a person like Norm Chow, who will give his whole heart to the program and, of course, his amazing coaching experience.

It would also be nice to see UH give the athletics director job to someone who cares about Hawai'i. Dick Tomey and Riley Wallace are two class acts who would give all they could to see Hawai'i prosper.

Hawai'i has come so far (best proof of this is seeing all of the support in New Orleans); please don't abandon us now, when we "believed" in you.

TRANSIT

BUS SYSTEM MEETS NEEDS OF ISLE RESIDENTS

In response to Jeff Merz's Jan. 4 Island Voices column ("Toll roads not the way to go for Hawai'i"), I feel that as he is a member of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, which represents Waikiki, he did not represent me, a resident who has lived in and near Waikiki for 49 years.

I am very much opposed to light rail into Waikiki, which is just the tail end of a billion-dollar boondoggle that I can barely afford and will not ride.

With all his knowledge of costs and percentages, he still advocates rail as the best solution to public transportation. We have a good bus system now and it meets the needs of everyone without spending billions to break our backs.

You need to print input from your readers with the complete picture so we can see why one person promotes what a majority of residents do not want.

ELEVATED HOT LANES MORE EFFECTIVE ANSWER

Elevated HOT lanes for buses, carpools and toll-paying cars would be far more effective than rail in solving our traffic problems.

Express buses can pick up passengers in the community on existing roads and then travel onto the guideway and drive 60 mph to the destination nonstop, providing fast, nonstop, convenient service with a minimum of transfers.

Rail riders would have to transfer many times on a typical round trip, involving up to 14 travel segments: a) home to bus stop, b) ride bus, c) bus to rail, d) ride rail, stopping at every station, e) rail to bus, f) ride bus, g) walk to destination. Then return home with similar segments. Not many people will put up with this tremendous inconvenience and waste of time, which means that rail will fail.

Buses and vanpools on free-flowing HOT lanes could reduce existing traffic congestion by 20 to 25 percent. Because of higher speed and fewer transfers, buses will attract more riders than rail, solving our traffic problem and conserving energy. An exclusive bus lane can carry more passengers than a rail line.

The price of constructing rail will probably reach $6 billion after all the cost over-runs, compared with less than $1 billion for elevated HOT lanes, and automobile tolls could provide most of that funding.

Federal surveys show that the public across all income groups approves of tolls. Without HOT lanes, travelers will still pay a "toll" for a train ticket or in wasted time if they sit in gridlocked freeway lanes.

OCEANIC

TV VIEWERS CAPTIVE TO ONE CABLE PROVIDER

Thousands of local viewers missed about an hour of the Sugar Bowl game because of cable damage, according to a representative from Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

During a television interview the following day, that same representative said the damaged cable was not the fault of Oceanic, and they would not give refunds to affected customers.

This was not an isolated incident. Outages occur quite frequently and service is sorely lacking at Oceanic. On Jan. 4 at about 8 p.m. we had difficulty with our cable box. We called Oceanic for assistance, but got a phone message that our wait would be about an hour.

My question to Oceanic is under what circumstances can we withhold a portion of the bill due to slow, poor or no service? What excuses will they accept for nonpayment of their charges?

Without competition, we are captive to this one cable service provider — or our state government could step up and force Oceanic to provide the services we are due.

I will not hold my breath waiting for the latter.