Hawai'i's new baseball coach feels 'fortunate'
By Stacy Kaneshiro,
Ferd Lewis and Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writers
When Les Murakami announced the 2001 season would be his last as the University of Hawai'i's baseball coach, an assistant coach at Georgia Tech heard the news and told his wife half in jest, "Hey, that would be a nice first head coaching job."
So pie-in-the-sky ideal, in fact, that Mike Trapasso recalls, "we just kind of laughed about it."
MIke Trapasso said the UH job is one he considered to be out of reach.
But when he was encouraged by colleagues to send in a resume and then UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida "called and asked me to meet him and the (screening) committee in Los Angeles," Trapasso said, "I told my wife (Catherine), 'remember when we laughed a few weeks ago?'"
These days the Rainbows' new head coach shakes his head in wonder at what has transpired. "Every day I feel fortunate," Trapasso said. "It is hard in this business for assistant coaches because there are, maybe, 30-40 jobs that are really top jobs that you'd love to have. When they come open — and there are only one or two a year usually — you've got not only guys like myself, the assistants, after them but a lot of head coaches with Division I experience."
One month into his job as only the second head coach the Rainbows have ever had, Trapasso sat down with The Advertiser in a wide-ranging 90-minute session to talk about where the program is and where it is headed.
On the fences:
"That's the single-most asked question that I've had to answer. My standard answer is that we'll leave it where it is when we're hitting and move it back when we're pitching. Really, we're not gonna do anything the first year. We will take a look at it after the season."
On first-year goals:
"The only goal right now is just that we play fundamentally sound and we play hard. The thing that excites me is that from what everybody tells me, the kids I have inherited do play hard. That excites me because they are going to set the foundation for the clubs that will follow them.
On where the needs are:
We need help on the mound, need a catcher, we need some help in the middle . . . but it is going to be a stretch to be able to bring in four arms because everybody needs pitching. At this stage right now, we're just looking for athletes. Say a guy is a third baseman, that's OK. Let's get him. Maybe he can also play left, first or DH, we'll see. Right now, we'll just bring in athletes."
On UH's immediate needs:
"The process is to get on the road and find as many kids as we can that are available but still have to be of the talent level that we are gonna be recruiting for next year and the year after. If there aren't enough of those guys available, we're not just gonna sign guys just to sign them. Say we need a shortstop, and there is a high school kid in San Diego that's OK but, in order to get him, we'd have to offer him big scholarship (money). I don't want to do that. I don't want to bring kids in just to bring them in because we could save that scholarship money and might be able to bring in an extra two the following year."
On this year's recruiting philosophy:
"First priority has to be here, keeping the kids that have the talent to allow us to be where we want to. To convince those kids to stay here. The majority of those kids will hopefully see that everything they are looking for in a school and program and professional exposure will eventually be here in their own backyard. From there, it only makes sense to go (recruit) the West Coast: California, Washington, Arizona."
On how the local talent rates:
"It is always solid. Hawai'i talent over the years has always been good. You're talking three to four drafts, good draft (choices). You'd like to keep a Keoni DeRenne, Brandon League, Justin Wayne and Shane Komine. Put those guys on the field, fill in with some guys from the Mainland for depth, and you have a top 10 team. The talent is there, we just have to find it and convince it to come."
On being the second choice:
"To me that is a non-issue. That's how things are done. I was told the (screening) committee was split down the middle (between himself and Arizona State's Pat Murphy). So Hugh (Yoshida) and Jim (Donovan) offered the job first to a quality coach who had a great name and has been to the College World Series. I have no problem with that."
On his philosophy:
"It is one where I'm almost obsessive about playing quality defense, team defense. You win with defense, pitching, base running and timely hitting. Even though college baseball is an offensive game because of aluminum bats, you have to do it that way. Look at Miami and you don't have to look any further on how they won (the College World Series)."
