Trapasso hires Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso hired Brian Green yesterday to be the team's hitting coach.
hitting coach
Green helped USD lead the
West Coast Conference in offenseBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comGreen joins the Rainbows from the University of San Diego, where he was in charge of hitting and the outfielders. The Toreros won the West Coast Conference championship this past spring to earn their first NCAA tournament berth.
USD led the conference in hits, runs, doubles, triples, walks, stolen bases and on-base percentage in 2002 and posted a .311 batting average.
"We had about 50 applicants and there was a group of guys I was initially interested in," Trapasso said. "I took my time and talked to a lot of people in the business. I narrowed the list to three or four and every time I talked to someone, Brian's name kept coming up.
"I have a lot of respect for (USD head coach) Rich Hill and he told me he turned the daily workload for the hitters over to Brian and it paid huge dividends. I talked to one of his former players who had nothing but great things to say about Brian."
Green, who visited the campus last week on a quick trip from Alaska, where he was in his second summer as head coach of the Kenai Peninsula Oilers, played at Riverside (Calif.) Community College, Chapman College and New Mexico State.
He was a student assistant at NMS for a year, spent a year as an assistant at Riverside CC, two at Cal Poly Pomona, two at Chapman and a year as a volunteer assistant at Oregon State before joining USD.
"He has coached at all levels. He brings a lot of experience for a young guy and he has been successful at every venture," Trapasso said. "When he was here I was impressed with his attention to detail. He just seemed to be a good fit."
Green has a bachelor's degree in business management from New Mexico State and a master's in educational administration from National University.
He has turned the reins over to his assistant in Alaska to prepare with his wife, Becki, for the move to Hawaii. Trapasso said Green should be on the recruiting circuit within three weeks.
Green replaces Josh Sorge, whose contract was not renewed after the 'Bows' team batting average dropped almost 40 points last year.
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