Janssen hired as assistant coach

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Travis Janssen has been named assistant coach for the University of Hawai'i baseball team, the school announced yesterday.

Janssen

Janssen also was an assistant for three seasons at Arkansas and one at Butler County JC in Kansas. He also was a student assistant at Kansas State in Manhattan, his hometown, and played at Butler before transferring to New Mexico State.

Green, who was a student coach at New Mexico State when Janssen played there, recommended Janssen for the UH job.

"We've pretty much stayed in contact," Janssen said of Green in a telephone interview from Louisiana. "He had so many good things to say about Hawai'i, the people and the program. I'm just real excited to be a part of it."

"I'm very excited to have Travis," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "He shares similar philosophies of the offense we've been doing the last couple of years. I'm excited about his approach to base running and the running game. It's very aggressive. But most of all, he's a very good person. He'll bring tremendous energy to our program."

Janssen was the third base coach and was in charge of hitting and outfielders at Northwestern State.

"He's a good hitting coach and a good communicator with the players," Gaspard said of Janssen. "He's a well-rounded coach. He's a top-notch recruiter.

"I'm excited for the opportunity that he has to go to Hawai'i," Gaspard added. "He deserves that opportunity. It affects our program a lot. He'll be a very tough guy to replace."

Janssen will arrive here Sunday.

"I get there three hours before our first team meeting," he said.

Janssen said he likes putting pressure on the defense with the running game.

"I'm very familiar with the field in Hawai'i," he said. "I know the wind blows in and it's not an easy park to hit in. (You'll need) a lot of executions. I like the running game and want to try to keep strikeouts down to a minimum. Just pretty fundamental stuff."

He also likes his hitters to be selective to boost their on-base percentage, but would like the middle part of the order to be aggressive with runners aboard.

"I think it can be a mistake sometimes if those guys in the middle of the order start looking for some walks," he said.

Northwestern State finished second in the Southland Conference at 16-9 (33-23 overall), 1 1/2 games behind champion Lamar. It was second in the league in team batting at .296 (league average was .282), but led in runs (380) and steals (131 in 164 tries). The team drew 235 walks (second in the league) to 336 strikeouts (tied with two other teams for third fewest).

Before interviewing for the job last month, Janssen said he had visited Hawai'i twice, once for a family vacation. His other visit came when he tagged along with his father, Mark Janssen, sports editor of the Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury, when he covered the 1994 Aloha Bowl between Kansas State and Boston College.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8042.