HONOLULU – Chaminade University Athletics announced Tuesday the hiring of Chad Konishi as its first head coach in the restart of its baseball program.
"After thoroughly researching through an impressive number of candidates across the country and interviewing finalists, Chad Konishi rose to the top of the list based on his storied experiences and significant accomplishments as a player and as an NCAA Division I coach," Director of Athletics Dr. Tom Buning said. "As an active coach in the Hawai'i youth baseball community, Chad made his passion for player development, love of the sport and vision for the program clear to the search committee. We could not ask for a better leader to lay the foundation to build Chaminade baseball. We are thrilled to welcome Chad and his family into our Silverswords 'ohana."
Konishi has extensive experience in collegiate baseball, serving as associate head coach at the University of Hawai'i Manoa from 2002 to '13 where he was also the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. During his 12-year career at Hawai'i, the Rainbow Warriors reached two NCAA Regionals (2006 and 2010) with a Western Athletic Conference title in 2011 while posting one 40-win season and eight 30-win campaigns. His pitching staffs were consistently near the top of WAC pitching statistics including posting the conference's lowest ERAs in 2006 (3.79) and 2007 (3.97).
While at UH, he helped coach three All-Americans in Kolten Wong, Lenny Linsky and Steven Wright, five all-district honorees, 52 players who were named either first or second team All-WAC and 45 who were drafted by Major League Baseball. Wong was a first-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011 and is currently playing with the Milwaukee Brewers. Wright was a second-round selection by the Cleveland Guardians in 2006 before making his big league debut with the Boston Red Sox in 2013 and enjoyed a seven-year Major League career.
Before arriving at the UH Manoa campus, Konishi was an assistant coach at the University of San Francisco from 1996 through 2001 where he was also the Dons pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. He coached two All-Americans, seven freshmen All-Americans, 18 West Coast Conference first and second team selections with 17 drafted into the majors.
His first year of coaching was at the City College of San Francisco in 1995 where he was the pitching coach, and helped the program to its first Coast Conference title in 35 years. CCSF finished that season ranked No. 6 among two-year colleges in the state of California.
Konishi is a 1989 graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and played collegiately at the University of California at Berkeley where he earned his Bachelor's of Science in Psychology. He was a member of two NCAA Regional squads including the 1992 team which advanced to the College World Series.
Since 2014, Konishi had been a high school athletics director, the past three at Saint Louis School, which shares the same campus as Chaminade. Prior to his time at Saint Louis, he headed the extremely successful athletics program at Saint Francis School in Manoa before the institution closed its doors in 2019. Both Saint Louis and Saint Francis won numerous Hawai'i High School Athletic Association state championships and Interscholastic League of Honolulu titles during his tenure as athletics director.
"I am thrilled to be joining the Silverswords 'ohana," Konishi said. "Having a close working relationship with them while I was at Saint Louis I know how special this university is. I am very much looking forward to building the foundation of Chaminade baseball and to eventually become a force in the PacWest of a sport I am passionate about."
Konishi will be formerly introduced as head coach in mid-October.
He is the second head coach in program history. Leroy Goo was Chaminade's only baseball coach during the 1980 and '81 seasons before the program was dropped.
The baseball program will begin regular season action in spring 2024.
