After coaching on the mainland for 37 years, including 13 seasons as a head baseball coach, Dave Nakama is returning home.

“I’m fortunate,” said Nakama, who has been hired as assistant coach for the University of Hawaii baseball team. “I’m excited to be able to come back home and coach at a place that, you know, growing up was the place to be.”

Nakama, a Kaiser High graduate who was born and reared in Honolulu, is expected to coach the UH outfielders and be involved heavily in recruiting.

“It was too good to pass up,” Nakama said of the opportunity. “I’m very fortunate.”

Nakama spent the past three seasons on the Washington staff. He previously was head coach at San Jose State, San Francisco State and Mission Junior College, and was an assistant at Stanford and Iowa.

Nakama and Rich Hill, UH’s new head coach, have known each other for several years. Hill and Washington head coach Lindsay Meggs were classmates at Saratoga High.

Pal Eldredge, a sportscaster and former coach and Major League Baseball scout, praised Nakama’s hiring.

“Dave Nakama has been kicking around college baseball for, I’m guessing, more than 30 years,” Eldredge said. “The fact that he knows how the game is played at that level and what it takes to run a successful program, and have the energy that it takes to get it done, I think it’s a great hire, a smart hire.”

Eldredge recalled coaching Nakama on the Babe Ruth team that went to Central California for a regional tournament. One of the opposing players was Jack Del Rio, who went on to play 12 NFL seasons as a linebacker and then serve as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders.

Two years later, Nakama was a starting infielder for the Moiliili team that won the 1980 American Legion national championship. Pitcher Sid Fernandez and catcher Keith Komeiji were among Nakama’s teammates.

“We only had 13 players on that team,” Nakama said. “Will Clark was playing for New Orleans. Bob Melvin played for Palo Alto. We had a good team. We had a great run. That probably was one of the more memorable times — well, except for playing at Kaiser. It was incredible.”

Nakama earned a bachelor’s degree at Willamette and a master’s from Northern Colorado.

He has three adult children, including Brodie Nakama, a former long-snapper for the UH football team.