UH Hilo names Elliott Cribby new Vulcans baseball coach

UH Hilo is betting that a coach with Division I recruiting muscle and a track record of turning pitching staffs into winners can reset one of the Big Island’s most visible college programs. Elliott Cribby was named the next head coach of the Vulcans baseball team Thursday, giving UH Hilo a permanent leader after an interim stretch and raising expectations for what changes next at Francis Wong Stadium.

Athletics director Patrick Guillen said Cribby emerged from an exhaustive national search and praised his high-level collegiate experience, recruiting background and player development record. Guillen also thanked Garett Yukumoto and the assistant coaches for keeping the program moving forward during the transition, a sign UH Hilo wanted stability in place before naming its next full-time coach.

Cribby arrives in Hilo with more than a decade of Division I experience and his first collegiate head-coaching job. His résumé includes stops at Abilene Christian University, Seattle University, Purdue University, the University of Washington and Central Washington University, where he worked as an associate head coach, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. Most recently, he coached at Eastlake High School in Sammamish, Washington, and with the DubSea Fish Sticks in summer collegiate ball.

His background points to the areas UH Hilo appears eager to change first: recruiting, pitching and roster development. At Washington, Cribby was named associate head coach, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator in June 2019 after previously lettering three times as a pitcher for the Huskies from 2006 to 2008. He also earned a master’s degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership there in 2009.

The numbers behind his stops help explain the hire. At Seattle University, Cribby helped guide a 2016 season that produced the Redhawks’ first-ever conference championship, a school-record 37 wins and a 3.61 ERA, the second-lowest in program history. Purdue’s coaching bios credit one of his staffs with school pitching records for strikeouts in a season, a game and strikeouts per nine innings, including 477 season strikeouts and 18 in a game against Indiana.

Cribby also has a championship background as a head coach, winning a state title at Mount Si High School in 2011. That experience may matter in Hilo, where the Vulcans are trying to climb after finishing 14-35 overall and 12-31 in PacWest play in 2025. The baseball program plays its home games at Francis Wong Stadium, and on an island where travel is demanding and keeping talent local is never simple, the coaching hire carries weight beyond one season.

Cribby said it is an honor to be selected and that he is grateful for the trust UH Hilo placed in him. He and his family, he said, are excited to join the UH Hilo ohana, and the program’s mission is to develop exceptional young men, compete for championships and represent the university with pride, discipline and integrity. For Big Island players and fans, that sets a clear new standard for what Vulcans baseball is supposed to become.