ARLINGTON – New UT Arlington head baseball coach Clay Van Hook has only been on the job a couple of weeks but already made a splash, today announcing the additions of Mike Trapasso and Mike Taylor as assistant coaches.
 
Trapasso – a former National Coach of the Year at Hawai'i – spent last season as a pitching coach at Navy, while Taylor – who won a National Championship at Rice – recently completed his seventh season at Baylor, serving as the hitting and third base coach for the Bears. Together, the two have combined for more than 50 years of Division-I coaching experience.
 
Van Hook had the following to said regarding both Trapasso and Taylor:
 
"Mike Trapasso is one of the most respected coaches in all of college baseball. Everyone who knows Trap regards him as a man of integrity and honor. To add his knowledge both as a premier pitching coach and his experience as a head coach in the WAC will be a great asset to our staff. He has proven he can recruit and develop pitchers at the highest level over a 30+ year career. Hiring Trap will immediately help create the culture and vision for the future of UTA baseball."
 
"I've known Mike Taylor since I was 7 years old. To bring someone in with his passion, respect and history of success is a head coach's dream. For more than 20 years, Mike has excelled in every aspect of the game from on-field development to recruiting. He has a resume that is second to none in the college baseball world. He has coached First Round MLB Draft picks, been to Omaha for the College World Series and achieved the pinnacle of college baseball: a National Championship. He will lay a foundation for UTA baseball in every town and city in the state of Texas. I couldn't be happier to have him be with me as a first-year head coach."
 
Below is more information about both Trapasso and Taylor.
 
MIKE TRAPASSO
Prior to his one season at Navy, Trapasso spent 20 years as the Hawai'i head coach from 2002-21, recording 536 victories including eight campaigns of 30 wins or more. He guided Hawai'i to multiple NCAA Regional appearances (2006, 2010), was named Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times (2004, 2006, 2011) and guided the Rainbow Warriors to consecutive WAC Championships in 2010 and 2011.
 
In 2006, Trapasso was named the National Coach of the Year by the National Baseball Foundation and was a National Coach of the Year Finalist by College Baseball Insider after leading Hawai'i to 45 wins and its first regional since 1992.
 
Additionally, Trapasso coached 13 All-Americans, 27 All-Big West selections, 52 All-WAC honorees and 80 academic all-conference selections during his time with Hawai'i – including graduating nearly all of his seniors from 2015-22. Along with the collegiate honors earned under the tutelage of Trapasso, 43 of his players were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.
 
Prior to his time in Honolulu, Trapasso spent time as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech (1995-2001), South Florida (1992-94) and Missouri (1989-91).
 
While with Georgia Tech, Trapasso was named the top collegiate baseball assistant/recruiter in the country by Baseball America in 2001. In his seven years with the Yellow Jackets, Georgia Tech never had a recruiting class that wasn't ranked in the top 20 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball: 4th, 18th, 7th, 1st, 14th, 11th and 12th. The top-ranked recruiting class in 1998 was named the best ever in the draft era, at the time, by Baseball America.
 
In those seven years in Atlanta, he helped guide Georgia Tech to 294 wins (an average of 42 per season), six regional appearances and two ACC championships in 1997 and 2000. In total, 16 pitchers were drafted by MLB clubs and seven were named All-America.
 
During his time at USF, Trapasso was the Bulls' pitching coach. He oversaw a staff which led the then Metro Conference in ERA all three seasons he was in Tampa, and made a regional trip in 1993 following a league championship.
 
Trapasso got his start in coaching at Missouri as a graduate assistant. He earned his master's degree from Mizzou in Health Promotion and Wellness Education in 1991.
 
Outside of the collegiate landscape, Trapasso was an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2004 World University Baseball Games in Taiwan. In 1983, he played for Team USA, making him the first person to play and coach for Team USA in baseball.
 
A four-time MLB Draft pick, Trapasso spent time as a player in both the Atlanta Braves (1985-86) and St. Louis Cardinals (1987) organizations.
 
Trapasso was an outstanding player at Jefferson College in Missouri (1982-83) and at Oklahoma State (1984-85). At Jefferson College, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award in 1982, which is bestowed annually to the best amateur baseball player in the country, while at Oklahoma State he led the then Big Eight Conference and was 5th in the country in ERA (1.42) in 1984.
 
He was a member of the OSU teams which went to the College World Series in both 1984 and 1985, including leading the Cowboys to a win in the CWS opening game in 1984. Trapasso received his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State in Business Administration/Marketing in 1987.
 
A native of St. Louis, Mo., Trapasso was inducted into the Greater St. Louis Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. He and his wife, Catherine, have two sons: Michel and Matthew.
 
MIKE TAYLOR
In 21 seasons at the D-I level as an assistant coach, Taylor's teams have appeared in 17 regionals, nine super regionals and made the trek to Omaha as part of the College World Series five times. He won the 2003 National Championship while at Rice, and in total his clubs have won 15 conference tournament or regular season championships.
 
Taylor had served as Baylor's assistant coach and recruiting coordinator since 2016, developing the Bears' hitters and outfielders. Under his tutelage, BU led the Big 12 in team batting average in both 2019 (.310) and 2021 (.302); the 2019 club ranked 9th nationally, while the 2021 squad was 16th.
 
In 2018, Baylor claimed its first Big 12 Tournament Championship in program history and advanced to the Stanford Regional – one of three-straight regional trips for the Bears as they also made NCAA postseason play in 2017 and 2019. All told during his tenure in Waco, Taylor coached 18 MLB Draft picks, including three First Round selections.
 
Serving the 2014 and 2015 seasons as the hitting, catching and third base coach for Houston, Taylor helped the Cougars to a pair of 40-win seasons, the 2015 American Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship, 2014 AAC Tournament Championship, two regionals and one Super Regional. The 2014 squad posted a 48-18 record, tying for the most victories in a single season in program history.
 
He developed 13 players who were selected in the 2014 and 2015 MLB drafts, three ABCA all-region batters and eight all-AAC hitters. Over the two seasons, the UH offense averaged 5.4 runs per game, hit .272 and blasted 61 home runs with 574 walks in 129 games.
 
Before joining Houston, Taylor was an assistant coach at Rice for 12 seasons from 2001-12 under legendary head coach Wayne Graham, after which Van Hook replaced him on the Owls' staff from 2012-17. Taylor helped the Owls to 12 straight conference titles, 12 consecutive regionals, eight supers and five CWS appearances between 2002-08.
 
He coached 92 Rice players who were chosen in the MLB Draft, including third baseman Anthony Rendon as the sixth overall pick in 2011 after being named the 2010 Golden Spikes Award Winner. While at Rice, the team earned a 91 percent graduation success rate, a GPA of 3.0 or higher and produced the 2008 NCAA Lowe's Senior CLASS Award winner.
 
Prior to his tenure at Rice, the Houston native spent eight seasons at the junior college level. He was an assistant coach at Galveston College for two seasons (1999-2000), going 84-34 overall, winning a conference title in 2000 and finishing ranked No. 4 nationally. He served as an assistant at Blinn College for six years (1993-98), posting a 259-103 record and helping Blinn to a pair of conference titles and a No. 3 national ranking to end the 1993 season.
 
As a player, Taylor was a shortstop for Graham at San Jacinto College. He helped the team to a national title as a freshman in 1987 and a national runner-up finish in 1988 before spending five seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Graham has called him "the best shortstop I've ever coached."
 
While coaching at Blinn, Taylor completed his undergraduate degree in human performance at Prairie View A&M in 1998. He and his wife, Amy, have four daughters: Macy, Madisyn, Molly and McKinley.

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