First group of signees just a start for Chaminade’s resurrected baseball program
HONOLULU — Chaminade has assembled most of the essential pieces. Now it just needs some assorted parts before it hits the “launch” button.
Coach Chad Konishi announced this week the first players of the Silverswords’ inaugural baseball recruiting class of the modern era as the Kalaepohaku university moves closer to the restart of its program after a four-decade lull. The Silverswords are counting down the months until their February 2024 diamond debut.
Konishi, a longtime former assistant at the University of Hawaii, was pleased to finally be able to show much of his 2024 roster work of the last eight months, he told Spectrum News, as he simultaneously attends to other program-building matters like scavenging equipment, compiling a staff and finding playable fields.
“It’s a big undertaking, that’s for sure,” Konishi said.
The 19 recruits (listed below), which include four Hawaii high school graduates, are half of the 38 that Konishi said are committed for 2024. The other half need to complete financing, associates degrees or transcripts before they can be announced.
At least nine will be from Hawaii when the final list is revealed, and about half of the final count will be players arriving from high school, he said. He intends to add to three more players for a final roster of 40 or 41, with the last ones in likely to be upperclassmen or graduate students from the transfer portal.
“I’d like to get a little older quicker, as I do want to be competitive immediately,” Konishi said. “I don’t want to wait a couple of years for us to be competitive.”
Chaminade played baseball for only two years, 1980 and 1981, before the program was scuttled for financial reasons. In the program’s return in a new age of college sports, Konishi has the equivalent of nine scholarships to disseminate among his players on top of merit-based aid they can receive for academics. That combination will be key, he said, to help recruits defray the cost of the Catholic school’s considerable tuition.
Konishi, a longtime pitching coach under Mike Trapasso, has placed an emphasis on building a pitching staff – about half of the roster will be hurlers – and supplementing them with catchers, shortstops and outfielders.
The Konishi pitch to prospective ‘Swords has been twofold: playing time and Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii.
“I said look, my best days growing up … was my experience at Cal Berkeley in college. I want my student-athletes, my players, to experience what this whole state has to offer,” Konishi said. “The whole experience. There’s going to be enough baseball, enough school. But I want to give them the opportunity to explore what Hawaii has to offer. Mandatory Sundays off, go surfing, go bodysurfing, go hike, go golf, go fish, go scuba, whatever, go do it. Just do it safe. I want the full experience (for them).
“And the baseball side is, you’re going to get a chance to play. So, for me, that has gone over well message-wise and that’s where I’m at with those 38 kids so far.”
Konishi took the job in late September after spending the previous three years down the hall as a Saint Louis School athletic director. Two of the four announced local commits to CUH are Crusader alumni – pitcher Jacob Villacorte and catcher/first baseman Ezekiel Ribuca.
After Villacorte, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Pitcher of the Year, decided not to walk on at UH, Konishi said he pounced.
“I immediately contacted Jakob and asked if he wanted to stay home,” he said. “As the year went I talked with him about, ‘hey, you’re having so much success as a pitcher. I know you can catch. Looking at my roster, I think you can
The other local players who signed with the ‘Swords are right-hander Reyn Kapua of Mid-Pacific Institute and Max Patterson, a 2019 Kalani graduate who pitched one season at Olympic College (Wash.).
He has three people committed to join his staff, though he could not reveal their names, suffice to say that they have ties to him through his past stops.
Chaminade faces the same problem as Saint Louis on the Kalaepohaku hillside – no baseball field.
Konishi said the Silverswords will practice at Ala Wai Field and play their 2024 home games at a combination of Central Oahu Regional Park, Hans L’Orange Park (if its renovations are completed in time), and Les Murakami Stadium during weekends that the Rainbow Warriors are on the road.
“(UH coach) Rich Hill gave me his blessing. (I) went up the chain and checked with the AD (David Matlin),” said Konishi, who added he needs to follow up with UH’s new athletic director Craig Angelos. “But my dates have been given to the stadium manager, Glenn Nakaya, and those dates are on hold.”
