Tuesday, August 7, 2001
[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII head baseball coach Mike Trapasso completed his staff yesterday by naming Keith Komeiji volunteer coach. Komeiji new
UH assistantBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comKomeiji graduated from Kaiser High School. He played one season for the Rainbows, another for Orange Coast Junior College, then signed with the Seattle Mariners.
He played six years in the Mariners' organization before capping his career with Grosetto and San Marino in Italy one season each.
Komeiji returned to Hawaii in 1990 and put baseball on the back burner for a few years before joining the Iolani School staff as an assistant coach seven years ago.
"Ever since I stopped playing, I wanted to get into coaching. I wanted to get to a high level, but the opportunity arose at Iolani," Komeiji said.
"What I want to do is give back to the kids. That's one of my goals, to give back to the community what people taught me and the experience I went through playing college and professional ball."
Komeiji has experience coaching college-level players, having coached two summers with the Hawaii Island Movers.
"I had talked with Keith early on and thought it would benefit our program to have him as our volunteer coach with his experience," Trapasso said. "The NCAA doesn't allow us to pay him, so you need some one with a job who is flexible enough to make practice. Keith has worked with some of our kids and they had nothing but good things to say about him."
Komeiji works for Japan Airlines in the freight sales department.
"I think this is going to be fun and I expect it to be a learning experience," Komeiji said.
The former catcher will assist hitting coach Josh Sorge with the offense and most likely coach first base during the regular season, said Trapasso.
"We're very fortunate to get someone like Keith to join our staff," Trapasso said.
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