HONOLULU — Figurative pitching changes are seldom made when it comes to the head baseball job at the University of Hawaii.
On Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium, one of those rare moments will be realized as Rich Hill makes his Rainbow Warrior coaching debut against Washington State.
Hill, 59, was named just the third head coach in the program’s NCAA history on June 18, when he was announced as the successor to 20-year veteran Mike Trapasso. Trapasso followed 30 years of the legendary Murakami, plus an interim season under Carl Furutani in 2001.
Hill, who spent the last 23 years at the University of San Diego of the West Coast Conference, was called upon to inject energy into a program that has floundered in the challenging Big West Conference.
The California native has done it with panache through the offseason and has actively sought to engage the local community, with a team to match the message — 20 of 33 players on the roster hail from the Islands.
The “chee-hoo” fast became a Hill calling card at UH sporting events over the last month.
“This is Hawaii’s team. The Rainbow Warriors are Hawaii’s team,” Hill said this week. “To have (20) local boys representing the University of Hawaii and state of Hawaii is phenomenal. Can’t wait to get that product on the field.”
Eight of nine projected starters are local, with the ninth, outfielder Scotty Scott, an adopted local. Junior right-hander Cade Halemanu, a Pearl City native, gets the Opening Day start.
The 2022 season figures to pose plenty of challenges for Hill. After WSU in this weekend’s opening four-game series, UH faces Mountain West teams in the Tony Gwynn Classic in San Diego, then hosts powerhouse Vanderbilt of the SEC and Rutgers of the Big Ten.
Then there’s the Big West. Coming into 2022, UH has never posted a winning conference record in eight years of competition. UH’s best mark was 12-12 in 2015 and 2016. In 2021, the Rainbows took eighth at 16-24 (24-26 overall).
UH, which hasn’t made an NCAA tournament appearance since 2010, was picked to finish sixth in the Big West preseason coaches poll; Long Beach State was picked to win. Hill said the conference is as good as he’s seen it in years.
“I think the challenge of getting our guys to believe in themselves, and getting them to believe that their dreams of becoming a Big West champion, of being the best version of themselves, can really be a reality,” Hill said.
However, he cautioned against expectations in Year 1 when asked of them by Spectrum News.
“To ‘expect’ is a very dangerous word, and one we don’t use in our culture. Expectations really lend itself to anxiety,” Hill said. “It’s all about the future, it’s all about what’s in somebody else’s mind. Our expectations are directly related to maximum effort, when it comes to preparation, to execution and character. I know that those three things — which I call the controllables — we’re going to be great at those things.”
Returning players Scott and Matt Wong described the atmosphere of team practices as loose at the outset and workmanlike once they get rolling.
“The previous years I would say it was more relaxed, let’s just get out here and do the things we need to do, get out and go home, come back the next day,” said Wong, an outfielder who worked his way back from an ACL injury in 2021. “But as far as Rich Hill and how he runs his practices, I would say we’re one of the hardest working teams in the country, because for the whole three or four hours we’re out here, we’re doing something every minute. There’s no walking around, there’s no slacking. He pushes us to the best of our potential. … I thank him because I don’t think I’d be here without him, and I don’t think we’d all be to (the point) where we are without him.”
Scott, a speedy leadoff man with a career on-base percentage of .409, entered the NCAA transfer portal after Trapasso’s dismissal but came back when he saw the energetic Hill chant “Let’s Go Bows” at his opening press conference.
“It’s a lot of ‘chee-hoos,’” Scott said of Hill’s style, “but at the end of the day, we ‘pool party’ out in right-center field before every practice, and we’ve tried to just bring that energy into everything we do, whether it’s our stretch lines, whether it’s off the field. Whether it’s our double celebrations at second base. Everything we do is full of energy and we really hope that bleeds out once games start.”
Hill went 747-514-4 at USD, including eight appearances in the NCAA tournament, most recently in 2013. For his full career, including stops at Cal Lutheran and San Francisco, he is 1,079-738-4.
He said he wants his players to show plate discipline and drive up pitch counts for opponents. Defensively, he said UH will lean on Halemanu and Saturday’s projected starter Andy Archer, a five-year player at Georgia Tech. But he also voiced confidence with the team’s middle relievers and the back end of the bullpen.
Spectrum News asked Hill why the time was right for him to make the switch from USD to UH after 23 years.
“A couple different factors,” he replied. “I think No. 1, the word ‘impact’ comes to mind. I’ve got this great opportunity to impact a group of new players for the next decade or for however long it is. I’ve got an opportunity to bring our baseball culture to the University of Hawaii, the state of Hawaii, the keiki of Hawaii.
“To me, this second mountain in my career … is just this unbelievable opportunity, and one that I just couldn’t pass up. I’m honored to be the baseball coach at the University of Hawaii, and I consider it the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Halemanu went 5-2 with a 3.60 earned-run average in 70 innings pitched in 2021. Washington State projects Grant Taylor (3-0, 3.04 ERA) as its Opening Day starter.
WSU went 26-23 under Brian Green last season (13-17 Pac-12) and returns seven starters.
First pitch is at 6:35 p.m.