Happy Monday everyone. 

My week is off to a bad start.

Why?

Because the work load just got a whole lot tougher.

You see, the OC16 Sports crew is down two strong members and we have to figure out how to replace their considerable talent.  Seems that Tony Sellitto and Dave Patterson have decided to trade in their television credentials for coaching ones.

I’ll start with Tony because most of you will recognize who he is and what he has done.

Sellitto’s tour of duty with OC16 was brief but very strong. 

This past spring Coach honored us by doing the color commentary for our Pacwest Basketball games.  The Pacwest of course being the dynamic conference that Hawaii Pacific, BYU-Hawaii, UH-Hilo, and Chaminade belong to.  If you tuned in, you knew this was a person who really understood basketball with true insight into the play and court strategy. 

I guess winning the 1993 NAIA basketball championship while at HPU will do that. 

 Oh yeah he was also 1992-93 NAIA National Coach of the Year and guided Maryknoll to its first and only boys’ high school championship before that.

In 2002, Sellitto retired from HPU as coach and athletics director to concentrate on his health.  Yeah like, this guy wasn’t going to win there either.  Which he did.

But Coach never really got over the basketball bug.  He went to just about every game he could - on the prep level or college.  Which pretty much brings you up to this past season when Coach joined us at the broadcast desk.  He couldn’t get enough basketball in his life.

Evidently doing OC16 tv work was the straw that broke the Tiger’s back (his nickname is Tony the Tiger).  Being that close to the action but not in the action didn’t cut it.

A few months later, Sellitto accepted an offer to return to HPU to coach men’s basketball.

He promises to return the Sea Warriors to the upper echelons of NCAA basketball.  I have no doubt he will and luckily you’ll get to see some of those HPU games on OC16! 

I’ll take what I can get out of Sellitto.

Now David “Dave” Patterson.

Besides having a great first name, Dave has been a longtime local fixture in local journalism in a behind the scenes kind of way.

I first met him when I started at KGMB-9 fresh out of UH in the summer of 1993.  He was a producer of one the station’s newscasts.

A gifted writer and even better dude, Patterson helped ease me into the broadcast scene.

He would later bounce around to another station, do some public relations and marketing work all the while helping coach NCAA summer league basketball here.

I would run into Dave at a lot of things…go figure…two people who liked sports.  So when we had an opening for a sports producer this past August and Dave became a great pickup for Oc16.

This guy has a great attitude and sports base so he quickly got up to speed.  In fact, I was going to dump…errr…elevate his role in our new sports season set to debut in a month.

But it wasn’t meant to be that my life would be easier. 

This past Thursday he informs me he’s moving his entire family to Saint Louis Missouri!

I said “for what?”

“I’m going back to my alma mater to be their head basketball coach,” Patterson replied.

Turns out besides helping coach NCAA summer league teams, Dave actually played basketball at Principia College back in the day.  Principia is a Division III liberal arts college in Elsah Illinois.

Like a lot of players who weren’t the star or could jump high or shoot really well (sorry to easy pass Dave), he soaked in the strategic side of the game. 

Patterson stored this away until deciding to create extra hassles for me…  I mean sure he says this is an opportunity of lifetime because the school will put his kids into their excellent lower, middle, and high schools - as well as - returning to his alma matter…blah…blah…blah.

I get it.  I get it.

Whatever.  Think of yourself and your family’s well being.  Fine.

That goes for you too Coach Sellitto. 

Go ahead and give Hawaii’s local prep players a chance to excel and compete at the collegiate level.  Help mold them into better human beings.

If that really makes you happy, see if I care!

Just because a stronger HPU team will up the level of play in the Pacwest and provide compelling matchups for OC16 to show…

Hmmm…wait that’s not a bad thing.

And you Dave Patterson…don’t think I won’t hold you to that promise of wearing a mic while coaching when your team passes through the islands.  Just make sure your coaching staff’s aloha shirts don’t look cheesy ok?

Coach Sellitto and now Coach Patterson, thanks for being a part of the OC16 Sports Ohana.

We’ll always have a press pass for you.

And for you other wannabe coaches out there.  If you want to get that main coaching gig?  OC16 Sports is now accepting applications because the road to the golden whistle comes through this cable station.

Yes, I have two big positions to fill.

Great…oh great…there goes the summer vacation.