The best of times for the University of Hawaii-Hilo baseball program probably came 32 years ago when the Vulcans generated a school-record 41 victories with a roster of mostly local players who wanted it a little more and kept finding
The best of times for the University of Hawaii-Hilo baseball program probably came 32 years ago when the Vulcans generated a school-record 41 victories with a roster of mostly local players who wanted it a little more and kept finding new ways to win games.
“The team truly understood baseball and their roles in the game,” said Joey Estrella, the man who started the program and was its only coach for 37 years. “It was a special group because they all took leadership roles, but they were led collectively by a great leader.”
That would be team captain Kallen Miyataki, “a coach on the field,” for Estrella, but these days Miyataki has a much more difficult task. He just completed his second season as head baseball coach, supplanting Estrella who retired and is currently serving as interim athletic director for a school that has been without departmental leadership since January, 2014.
Miyataki, a vital member of the best of times for UH-Hilo baseball, is challenged with bringing it out of its present difficulties, which, you could make the case, represent the worst of times for the program since its inception in 1977.
Hilo baseball fans don’t need a refresher course on the issues, from skyrocketing travel costs to diminished financial help from the state to the unpredictable rain factor and these days, even the competition for players on the Big Island has intensified, dramatically.
Ironically, the emergence of Kamehameha-Hawaii High School’s Kolten Wong as an integral member of the St. Louis Cardinals perennial World Series challengers has served to make the job even more challenging for Miyataki.
“The story of Kolten Wong is a classic one, and one that epitomizes the kind of players we’re looking for,” Miyataki said of the Cardinals’ Hilo-raised second baseman. “Kolten was a kid who wanted it more than the others, he put in the extra work, he did the job in school, he was well-rounded and focused and he’s showing the world what kind of baseball players we have around here.”
Wong’s exposure worked like a magnet for professional baseball scouts and college recruiters. Imagine a long fishing pier with a dozen or so anglers at various stages along the way. Down at one end, a guy starts pulling in fish and before you know it, everyone is gathered in the same area, dropping baited lines.
That’s what recruiting baseball players on the Big Island is like these days for Miyataki and it’s not just Hawaii-Manoa and the other Oahu schools who are combing through the BIIF for players, it’s mainland schools and not just on the West Coast. A year ago, Miyataki lost a promising player to a junior college in North Carolina that put together a financial package that acted like a virtual full-ride scholarship.
Oh, scholarships? Miyataki has four, less than half of the nine allowed by the NCAA, while playing in the Pacific West Conference where, “virtually every school has a full complement (of scholarships),” Estrella said.
Considering how far behind the Vulcans are financially, both in the islands and the conference, can it be done? Can this directionless athletic department, without a leader for almost 18 months, find a way to compete in baseball and other sports?
“No one should think (Miyataki) can do it by himself,” said Bill Trumbo, the school’s athletic director from 1990-2000, now in a similar capacity at Konawaena High School after a stint at Cal-State Monterrey Bay. “People in Hilo absolutely love their baseball, but they won’t come out to see losing baseball that can’t compete in its conference.
“They can definitely rebuild that thing and make it popular again, but they need an AD invested in fund raising, someone aggressive and full of ideas who can get on the street and meet people,” Trumbo said. “If you had that and you had Joey coming around after, talking to the locals, schmoozing with them, you could turn that thing around in a hurry.”
With an AD whose core strength is fund raising, this program might just have a chance to be reborn and maybe the next Kolten Wong can be drafted out of the red and black uniforms of Vulcan baseball.
“We are under no illusions,” Miyataki said. “We are between a rock and a hard place but we will work our way out.”
Recruit by recruit, sponsor by sponsor, one day at a time.
Contact Bart at barttribuneherald@gmail.com
