At the end of a season, a record is left behind, there footprints of the path are out there for public view.
It goes in the books, it is posted on an NCAA website for anyone who cares to look, and let’s just say right here, the baseball record at UH-Hilo isn’t a pretty sight.
So here you go — the Vulcans were 8-31-1 this season and in four years for coach Kallen Miyataki, the record is about the same — 42-133-1.
Unsightly, for sure.
Unexpected?
That’s a different subject and it isn’t pumping sunshine into your head to mention that, behind the ugly numbers, there are some invigorating signs for the Big Island school’s baseball program.
On the surface, that might seem preposterous.
The most wins for UHH in the last four years was 14 (2014), the fewest wins over that span were this season’s eight victories.
If that’s what you want to focus on, feel free to obsess about the past, but doing that, you might miss the first few signs of actual growth and expansion.
It might only be the initial sprig of life, like in those first noticeable shoots from the sweet potatoes you planted, but it is real, something is happening that foretells improvement at UHH.
There’s more money now, not nearly enough to expect a competitive program, but more than the $42,000 the program had when Miyataki started four years ago after a UHH playing career and a long stint as an assistant.
“That wasn’t much,” he said last week, “but they were planning on cutting back more. We’ve come a ways since then.”
Miyataki has done a lot of it on his own with personal contacts who believe in his approach and have supported the program financially through their businesses. The school has nudged a little more funding his way, too and he goes into his fifth season with “about $104,000,” to work with.
The money schools in the Pacific West Conference consider that small change, but in a conference dominated by private religious schools that can legally conceal their finances, Miyataki can only do what is available to him.
It seems that part might be ready to start paying dividends.
Through his long term system of developing players, the Vulcans cultivated Jordan Kurokawa, drafted last year by Philadelphia, and this season he and his staff sent out Phil Steering, the junior first baseman who led the PacWest in hitting (.421), and expects to improve on that in his senior season.
Neither Kurokawa or Steering had been sources of interest for other PWC coaches. They were available for the taking and they were molded into all-conference level ability, which is a point worth considering. Other schools seldom create a Kurokawa or a Steering because the players they get out of high school don’t need that kind of tutoring, the PWC money schools start with more finished products.
Back home in California, Steering is well-known. Miyataki recently received a verbal commitment from a high school player named Chris Aubert.
“He told me, ‘Coach, I would love to come to Hilo and learn everything I can from Steering; I would come and sit out for a year just to watch him and train with him.’” Miyataki said. “That’s the first time I’ve heard anything like that.
“The record is the record,” he said, “I knew what I was getting into, and I’m just stubborn enough that I think I can help make it better. When you hear a kid say something like that about a player you helped develop, it tells you that you’re probably headed in the right direction.”
The climb is uphill and the hill isn’t getting any smaller, it’s more a case of Miyataki’s step-by-step planning becoming more and more effective. Nothing at the NCAA school in Hilo will be healed over night, or from one year to the next.
The odds may be too great to expect UHH to compete for a championship, but that cannot be the focus after four years. Working its way into the middle of the pack, picking off the top teams here and there when they visit the Big Island, carving a winning record against the bottom half of the conference? That seems possible. A winning record — something like 19-17 — isn’t out of the question.
Miyataki can count a handful of games that were the Vulcans’ except for mishandling of routine plays. There were four or five of those incidents that could have made an 8-win season a 12-win season.
It’s all good to say these things in a vacuum, but it’s something else when the coach hears them from his own players.
“That’s a big difference,” Miyataki said. “I’m getting a lot of feedback from these kids that show some maturity.”
One of those came from Brandyn Lee-Lehano, a freshman from Kamehameha Schools Hawaii who came to the team with expectations that fell apart once he got in games. He finished the season 1-3 with a 12.54 earned run average.
“Brandyn told me, ‘Coach, I thought I was good, I thought I could come in and prove everyone wrong,’” Miyataki said, “and that kind of honesty, or reality or whatever it is, gets you to the place where you decide to work and get better.”
That’s not to say local players can’t make it at this level. Jonathan Segovia, from Pahoa and Keaau High School, is a good example. Not everyone grows in sports at the same rate, but work makes growth possible.
“What a great kid,” Miyataki said of the local outfielder who batted .291 this past season and has matured off the field as well. “He came in and got to work, he’s a 3.0 student in the classroom, he’s a speaker, a leader, he spoke at the Pahoa (High School) sports banquet.
“We can use all the Jonathan Segovia’s we can get,” he said.
At the same time, the extra money is persuading Miyataki to try to bring in a few more junior college transfers. The plan has been to strengthen the base of the program through high school recruits who buy into the process, but now he thinks a few JC players who know their way could compliment the roster.
“You might see more of them next year,” Miyataki said. “We’re getting interest we haven’t had before.”
In that respect, Miyataki has also made an offer he’s never previously made, offering scholarship money worth $22,000 to one player, a graduated high school senior in California.
He’s never been able to offer that kind of money to high school players and, while it falls far from the $40,000 and more the money schools in the conference routinely offer, it’s enough to get UHH in the game.
“I think we have a shot,” Miyataki said.
He was referencing an opportunity to land a talented player, but it could have just as well stood for the big picture view of the baseball program itself.
