Dallas Bolla, wife of University of Hawai'i 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 Wednesday and completed paperwork yesterday, just before the team left for Hilo to play in the Bank of Hawai'i Invitational in Hilo. (Bolla already had arrangements to fly to Hilo to attend the games with daughter Sasha).

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

"We're really pleased to be able to hire Kevin," UH athletic director Jim Donovan said. "We know that he loves UH and he's just a great guy who really knows UH women's basketball. We think he'll be able to help the program."

Dallas Bolla, who also served as an assistant coach at Purdue and Louisville, was one of about 80 applicants for the job. Under the UH Board of Regents rules against nepotism, Jim Bolla was excluded from the search, interview and hiring processes.

"The BOR has a nepotism policy that states that familial relations cannot make decisions on job status or compensation," Donovan said. "Jim was completely removed from the process."

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

"If I had any concern, it was that she and Jim are married," Donovan said. "But she was very proactive in talking to other married couples who also coach and she got advice on how best to deal with that situation. She assured me that her focus was on the student-athlete and developing good women and good basketball players."

Jim Bolla said he "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. 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.

"She has head coaching experience but she made it very clear that she's comfortable with working as an assistant," Donovan said. "In addition to her on-court knowledge, she's done a lot of recruiting, so she'll be able to help with that as well."

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 tomorrow.