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Friday, January 19, 2001
CARL Furutani's new responsibilities are not by choice. Furutani ready to
fill in as the Rainbows’
acting head coachBy Al Chase
Star-BulletinThe Kauai native feels honored to be named the acting head coach of the University of Hawaii baseball team.
But like many Hawaii fans, Furutani wanted to see Les Murakami in his familiar position at the end of the dugout or in the third base coaching box for one more season -- a season that Murakami said "would be a blast" when he announced his retirement last May.
When Murakami will return is uncertain. He is recovering from a stroke he suffered Nov. 2 and is on medical leave.
"My number one objective is to fill Les' wishes as to what he wanted to accomplish this year," Furutani said. "I know he would have enjoyed this team, especially since we've done a lot since the beginning of summer in terms of what he wanted to do."
ALUMNI GAME
When: Tomorrow
Furutani is entering his 28th season with the program. He pitched for the Rainbows for four seasons after graduating from Waimea High School.
He earned his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1977 and a masters in education in 1980.
He was a part-time assistant coach and physical education instructor for six years, then became a full-time assistant in 1986.
Furutani also has been head coach of the Hawaii Island Movers, guiding them to several season-ending tournament titles.
He has been handling the Rainbows scheduling and travel arrangements for a number of years.
In some ways this experience prepared Furutani for his present role, yet, he also discovered there were more demands, more administrative tasks and some necessary adjustments.
"When you're an assistant you do things, but someone else has final approval. There's no pressure. Now you have to make sure everything is done," Furutani said.
"I found out nobody can be a Coach Les especially with his presence and his ways of getting things done. No one can do it the way he did it.
"I found myself needing to spend more time with the ballplayers which I like to do anyway. I had to communicate more.
"I realized we had to make some adjustments to fit. They were little things, but they can amount to big things."
Furutani doesn't pretend to be like Murakami when it comes to game management, but there will be similarities because of their long association.
"Coach Les has a feel for the game that nobody really has, that sixth sense. He'll make changes that, at the moment, a lot of people won't understand, but after it happens you go wow," Furutani said.
"Offensively, I tend to take a lot of chances. We're going to be very aggressive. In baseball you need to react to the spur of the moment, take risks, create opportunities."
Part-time assistant coach Tommy Gushiken will run the offense. He and Furutani think alike and plan to script a lot of things beforehand.
In a recent discussion, veteran coach Masa Yonamine told Furutani that after a game you don't want to be thinking 'I should have done this.'
Furutani says he can live with the decisions he makes better than the ones he didn't.
"There is nothing wrong with trying. You put trust and confidence in your ballplayers. That's the most important thing.
"That's one thing we wanted to do this year. Not only we trust them, but they trust us. We talked about this at the end of fall practice and I told the players I was ready to go to war with them."
With the opening of the regular season six days away, Furutani is excited about the season and expects butterflies.
"How many or how big they will be, I don't know," he said.
He looks forward to playing Cal State Sacramento, a regular visitor to Rainbow Stadium, next week. There is a long-standing, friendly relationship between Hornets head coach John Smith and the UH staff.
"John is a tough opponent because he has been here so often. There is no advantage. This is the way I would want to have it," said the 45-year-old Furutani.
Furutani's toughest job this year was making cuts to get to the 36-man roster.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
