An ability to recruit, rebuild, relate

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

When Kris Wilson arrived at Georgia Tech in 1994, he was a highly sought quarterback on a football scholarship with raw baseball skills.

But after only a few months as a walk-on baseball player under assistant coach Mike Trapasso's tutelage, Wilson came to realize where his professional future would be.

He finished his freshman season as the No. 1 pitcher on the Yellow Jackets' pitching staff and walked away from football, where he had also been recruited by Florida State and Miami. At the conclusion of his junior year, Wilson was 12-2, the first Tech pitcher to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in earned run average (3.12), an All-American and a ninth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals.

"I wouldn't be where I am (in the major leagues) without what I learned from (Trapasso)," said Wilson, in his second year with the Royals. "He really worked with me and molded me to be the player I am."

The gushing testimonies of his former pitchers in the pros — 16 over the past six years alone — offer a revealing glimpse into why the 37-year-old Trapasso, Tech's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for seven seasons, is the University of Hawai'i's new baseball coach today.

While members of UH's screening committee cite Trapasso's praises, his players and their parents fairly sing them.

"I can't say enough about what he's done for me," said Rhett Parrott, a Yellow Jacket pitcher who is expected to go high in today's Major League draft.

"He has a way of bringing out the best in you," said Steve Kelly, another pitcher awaiting the draft.

Indeed, even as he departs Tech, it is this week's draft that will underline what Trapasso has meant to the Yellow Jackets' program. Baseball America lists seven Tech players among its top 60 pro prospects from college this season, all of them recruited to the school by Trapasso in a class that was ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball.

It is this combination of those talents — coaching and recruiting — that the Rainbows have come to call on in the Missouri native, who is being asked to restore UH to a regular place in the NCAA playoffs. It is his skills as a teacher and motivator that will be tested in turning around a once-proud program that has had but one Western Athletic Conference winning season in the past nine years.

It is Trapasso's hard work in recruiting, acumen for spotting talent and developing it, and organizational ability that prompted Baseball America to rate him the top coaching prospect among the nation's assistant coaches this season.

Yet, it is Trapasso's people skills that his players say they'll remember most. "How many other coaches tell their players to run three miles — and then run along with them?" Wilson said. "With him, you get the feeling that he's in there with you. There is a bond, but there's also a lot of respect."

Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall said: "Coming back from lunch today I asked Mike if he could get the 'Jackets on his schedule for next season. I told him I'd only play him in his first season or two at Hawai'i because after that he's gonna have things turned around. Believe me, if you know Mike and what he's capable of as a coach, you'd rather play him sooner than later."