Barring a late surprise, Mike Trapasso will go into the final year of his contract as the University of Hawaii’s baseball coach in 2020.

Sound familiar?

It should.

Trapasso has been toes-over-the-precipice perhaps more than any coach in any sport at UH. And, yet, he has managed to occupy the Rainbow Warriors’ dugout for 18 seasons, a seniority that ranks him fourth among the active coaches of the school’s 21 teams.

Now, coming off his worst season in six years, a 20-30 (8-16 Big West) finish punctuated by a six-game season-ending losing streak, there are renewed and louder howls for a change.

But before you consider laying down a bet on that taking place, it is instructive to remember the seeming going on nine lives that have gotten Trapasso to an even 1,000 games with a 501-499 record in his stay at UH.

An administrator at a mainland school who has long known Trapasso and followed his career said Tuesday, “When his back is against the wall he seems to be able to turn it on and ride it out.”

Nine years ago, for example, Trapasso was mere pitches away from losing his job at UH. Entering the 2010 season the mandate to Trapasso was: “Get the ’Bows to the NCAA tournament or you won’t be coming back.”

And entering the Western Athletic Conference tournament with a 29-25 record, word was some influential people in high places, including the Board of Regents, had already settled on their choice of Trapasso’s replacement.

It surely looked like curtains in the WAC tournament opener with UH down 7-6, two outs and a man on first in the bottom of the 10th inning against Louisiana Tech.

But, then, Bulldogs coach Wade Simoneaux curiously allowed his team to pitch to Kolten Wong, who had homered in the eighth inning. Wong proceeded to blast a pitch over the bullpen and beyond the right-field fence at HoHoKam Park. And UH won four of five games in the tournament to earn what stands as its last trip to the NCAA tournament.

Two years ago Trapasso was down to his final season when athletic director David Matlin renewed the contract for another year. Last year, four months away from the expiration of his contract, Trapasso parlayed a 21-15 start in April into the two-year extension that now takes him through 2020.

While UH fans understandably bemoan the lengthy conference championship and NCAA tournament drought that has befallen the ’Bows, Trapasso has bolstered his argument by appealing to administrators on other levels. He has produced teams whose NCAA Academic Progress Rates, a metric of progress toward graduation, surpass the national average for his sport. And despite rarely competing for conference titles, his teams have drawn surprisingly well. This year’s team still claimed the third-highest average attendance in the West (2,735 tickets distributed) behind only Oregon and Arizona State, according to the NCAA.

Never mind, of course, that we are left to wonder how full the place would be if the ’Bows were actually contending for championships on a regular basis.

So, unless Matlin comes up with the cash — or the gumption — to make a change this summer, expect Trapasso back again for 2020.

Given his — and UH’s — track record, frankly anything else would be a surprise.

SENIOR SKIPPERS

(UH’s longest active current head coaches)

Years Coach Sport

29 Andy Johnson Sailing

28 Bob Coolen Softball

21 Ronn Miyashiro Golf

18 Mike Trapasso Baseball

Source: UH.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.