For someone who was dogged by the perception that he was reluctant to hire locally, Herman Frazier will practically assure that whoever succeeds him as the University of Hawai'i's athletic director does come from the 808 area code.

As the search committee meets with finalists this week, it is looking more and more that the next AD will come with local knowledge and sensitivity, not to mention a familiar zip code. And that's a good, long overdue, sign.

Indeed, the word is out in collegiate circles nationally that this will be, in the words of one Mainland figure, "a close-to-home hire." That was the scouting report going in and perhaps because of it, we're told, there is a dearth of top-drawer Mainland applicants.

Just how many candidates there are, much less what the geographical breakdown has been, is curiously being kept a secret. A better one, it turns out, than the Waikiki hotel location of the interviews.

Around UH, where they await the anointment of their next leader, folks would be shocked — shocked! — if it was somebody from other than these parts. And, frankly, they should be. We should all be.

When you have Rockne Freitas, Jim Donovan, Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano and Keith Amemiya, to name a few, in your pool of applicants, why would you venture outside at this critical juncture in UH sports?

Why would you pick somebody that would take a year or more to get up to speed with the department, school and state when you have more immediate help at hand? Especially when it has been shown that some otherwise bright, experienced people can take five years and never get it right.

The Sugar Bowl bonanza will carry UH through the current fiscal year that ends in June. I mean, when the Bowl Championship Series check is finally cut, athletics will be getting the money, right?

But after that it will be back to keeping the department afloat, much less ascending, by hard work and creativity. It will involve fundraising, sponsorships and selling tickets. UH will need someone who can walk the halls of power, both down at the capitol and up the hill at Bachman and Hawai'i Hall, and get things done. It will need someone who can wade into the business community and make things happen. And UH needs that person to accomplish it sooner rather than later. Someone who knows the names and the on-ramps from the get-go.

The last athletic director wasn't able to do those things. But his departure has underlined the necessity that his successor must.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.