Chillin’ in a tank top and board shorts, Kekai Rios walked into the locker room at Les Murakami Stadium on Wednesday with a few Hawaii teammates laughing it up.

Ten minutes later, the freshman emerged from the third-base dugout entrance wearing his UH polo shirt tucked into a pair of slacks. His smiling face was now a serious stare matching his change in wardrobe.

There are two sides to every collegiate athlete who puts on a uniform. There’s the athlete relaxing among friends, carefree and without worry. There’s also the player well aware of the camera and spotlight when he enters the field of competition.

Rios is the unique athlete whose personality is the same no matter where he is or what he’s wearing. That carefree no-worries guy in board shorts is the same dude wearing shin guards and a catcher’s mask behind the plate every weekend.

It’s a big reason why the Kamehameha graduate has made a seamless transition from high school to Division I baseball.

“He’s a mature young man who is doing it the right way,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “He’s a tremendous story that’s still being written. He busted his hump getting himself eligible to have this great opportunity and I think he’ll tell you it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”

Two years ago, Rios accepted a scholarship offer from Hawaii, but it was far from a done deal. Like a staggering number of high school recruits from Hawaii, Rios still had a lot left to accomplish in the classroom to become eligible.

When he took the SAT for the first time, his score came back well below what was needed to get accepted to UH.

He had the skill set to possibly get drafted and junior colleges were jumping at the opportunity to possibly land a top catching prospect.

The options give recruits reasons to look elsewhere instead of playing at home, but Rios had other plans.

“I always wanted to come here,” Rios said Wednesday before boarding the team bus. “My mom sat me down and made me do review (work) in order to get eligible.”

Hawaii signed six high school players in-state in 2014 and ’15, but only two — Rios and teammate Kobi Candaroma from Kamehameha-Hawaii — wound up qualifying academically.

Two are currently in junior college and two others signed after getting drafted but have their work cut out for them.

Since 2005, 17 players have signed professionally out of Hawaii high schools and none have made the big leagues.

Of the last nine players from Hawaii to debut in the majors, seven played college ball.

“As disappointed as people might be that they may not make it the first go-around academically out of high school, I would still rather see kids go the JC route than the pro route,” Trapasso said. “I’ve always said if you take every high school kid that’s drafted and put them in minor league baseball for two weeks, 95 percent of them will go to school because they realize they don’t want that minor league lifestyle.”

Rios would have ended up at a junior college after going undrafted, proving once again the draft is a fickle process.

“Frankly, Kekai’s talent level is significantly higher than many guys I’ve seen drafted out of high school in the last 10 years,” Trapasso said. “Lucky for us he wasn’t drafted because he’s having so much success as a freshman and he’s only going to get better over the next couple of years to where he has a chance to be a high draft pick.”

It’s been a special year for Rios, who enters today’s series opener against Cal State Northridge eighth in the Big West with a .337 batting average. Defensively, he ranks second in the conference with 14 baserunners thrown out.

He’s started all but four games of his freshman campaign and is part of a team in the thick of the Big West title chase for the first time.

“Honestly, I didn’t picture myself in this situation,” Rios said. “I know a lot of my friends were questioning me about my decision to come here because of how (UH) was doing in the past, but I came because I’m from Hawaii and I want to try to turn things around and get us going.”

Whether Rios plays professionally, he was certain of one thing as he was the last to board the bus Wednesday.

The lifestyle he’s currently living is the one he’ll always remember fondly.

“I would definitely regret it,” Rios said if he wasn’t playing at UH. “Especially after living through the life I have now.”