HILO, Hawai'i – Hawai'i Hilo Softball assistant coach and former Vulcans Baseball head coach Joey Estrella talked with Joey McWilliams for Midwest Sports Net's "50 States in 50 Days" series as part of the network's nationwide coverage marking the 250th anniversary of the United States earlier this month.

Estrella holds the longest tenure on the Hawai'i Hilo Athletics staff dating back to 1976 when he returned home to build the Vulcans Baseball program after playing baseball at UH Manoa (1972-1974) under legendary Hall of Fame coach Les Murakami.

The conversation covers his decision to come home and start the program, the NCAA rule he used to bring mainland Division I opponents to Hilo and the program's shifts between NAIA to NCAA Division I and Division II.

INTERVIEW LINK: youtu.be/7ISaLAgaiGk

JOEY ESTRELLA

• Full Name: Joseph Estrella Jr.
• Hometown: Hilo, Hawai'i
• Education: St. Joseph High School 1969; UH Manoa B.Ed. 1974; UH Manoa M.Ed. 1976
• Playing career: Basketball and Golf at Hawai'i Hilo (1969-72); Baseball at UH Manoa (1972-74)
• Vulcans Baseball head coach 37 seasons (1976-2013): 657-935-5 record, 3 NAIA World Series appearances, 5 NAIA District II Championships
• Honors: 2x NAIA Area I Coach of the Year (1986, 1989); first UH Manoa Jack Bonham Award winner; 2017 Hawai'i Hilo Athletics Hall of Fame (Men's Basketball); 2025 Big Island Sports Hall of Fame
• Current: Vulcans Softball assistant coach (since 2017), Vulcans Volleyball PA announcer

HIGHLIGHTS

• Playing Basketball at Hawai'i Hilo: "Coach [Les Murakami] had actually tried to recruit me out of high school (to play baseball), but I wanted to stay home. I didn't know what I liked better — baseball or basketball. I had a chance to play basketball at Hilo so I said I'll take that opportunity."
• Stint with Hawai'i Hilo Golf: "We had a (baseball) league here called the AJA, American Japanese Association, started way back with the 442nd RCT and the 100th Infantry Battalion. I was playing on Maui as part of an all-star baseball team from Hilo and the golf coach there said, 'Hey, you're already on Maui — you might as well just stay.' That's how I got to play in the golf playoffs. I hadn't really practiced or anything but we had six golfers and my score counted for four days."
• Transferring to UH Manoa for baseball: "Coach Les Murakami, the legendary coach who just got into the Collegiate Hall of Fame, said, 'you come over and we'll give you an opportunity to play,' and that's what happened. For the next three seasons, it was a special time — here's a little Hilo boy coming over from a population of maybe 200,000 people to where I lived in the UH Manoa dormitories who had probably 200,000 people just in that area. So it was a great experience."
• Post-Grad Advice from coach Les Murakami: "I remember walking in and saying, 'Coach, what's next?' I had applied for jobs in Honolulu because I still wanted to be part of the program. He said, 'Joey, you've got to decide — do you want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond?' I took the opportunity to go to Hilo, thinking I was going to be a small fish in a small pond and it just worked out."
• Mr. UHH: "Assistant basketball coach, I also taught three classes as an instructor — I kind of did everything. Then the next year I did sports information because I opened my mouth and said, 'I can do this, I can do that.' Later on, fortunately, I was able to become the baseball coach and the athletic director for nine seasons."
• NAIA to NCAA Division I: "When the Western Athletic Conference broke up, Arizona and Arizona State left for the Pac-10, and the NCAA said that unless we were a Division I member, our exception to play extra games against Hawai'i, Alaska and Puerto Rico opponents wouldn't apply anymore. So we were almost forced to go Division I. I went from winning 75 percent of my NAIA games to losing about 95 percent of my Division I games — but I wouldn't have changed that at all. One year we were 9-45. But our strength of schedule nationally was 12th. We played six mainland Division I teams that season; three of them went to the World Series, two more to regionals. The boys will talk about that. What a great experience playing against Joe Carter, Rafael Palmeiro and Will Clark."
• Division I to Division II: "Even though the transition and the win-loss record wasn't there, the opportunity and the chance to play Division I mattered. Then we had some changes in administration and they did say Division II was where we were supposed to be — which I concurred."
• Jack Bonham Award: "One thing I was real proud of — when I was at Manoa, I was the first winner of the Jack Bonham Award. It's named for the assistant athletic director at UH Manoa, who died in a plane crash. To this day, it's the most prestigious award they give out — for academics, community service and athletic participation. I was able to go back and make the presentation myself, as the first winner, after 50 years. Besides being around great people, being in the right place at the right time to be honored that way was real special."