Five years removed from winning the Little League World Series, Sean Yamaguchi still gets recognized in public.
He also is recognized by a slew of baseball coaches vying for his college commitment.
After a summer of visiting college campuses, the Saint Louis shortstop, who still gets called “Big Sexy” to this day, wrapped up the recruiting process on Saturday announcing his commitment to Nevada.
The 5-foot-10 senior-to-be went to the place that felt most like home away from home. Hawaii, Cal, Santa Clara, Fresno State, Utah, LMU and Brigham Young were also interested.
“I knew right when the (coaching staff) took us to a local place to eat and all of the coaches were there and my parents felt very comfortable,” Yamaguchi said in a phone interview. “The staff has some ties to Hawaii and they want to bring a lot of local kids up there to play and that’s what I want to be a part of.”
Yamaguchi first connected with recruiting coordinator Jordan Getzelman when he was an assistant at William Jessup, which has a strong tie to the islands with 10 players from Hawaii on its roster last season.
Getzelman ended up at Middle Tennessee in 2022 and again reached out to recruit Yamaguchi, but Tennessee wasn’t a desirable destination.
Once Getzelman took a the job at Nevada this past season, Reno suddenly was in play.
“Really, I think it was just connecting with him from the start when I was in eighth or ninth grade and then staying in touch over the years,” Yamaguchi said. “It was one of those things where I was visiting colleges in California after the Nevada trip but I kind of already knew where I was going.”
The Hawaii ties are endless. Noah Shackles, who was the Gatorade State Player of the Year at Mid-Pacific in 2015, is an assistant coach with the Wolfpack.
Kupono Decker, who is from Hilo, is the director of baseball operations. Both of them played at William Jessup under head coach Jake McKinley, who just finished his first season at Nevada.
Mason Hirata, who was on Waiakea’s state championship team in 2022, started 40 games for the Wolfpack this season.
“Mason hit me up before I was coming up and it’s funny because that’s kind of the culture they are building,” Yamaguchi said. “They try to make the local kids feel comfortable away from home. When I announced my commitment, the whole team reached out to me. They aren’t just recruiting good players but they’re recruiting good people as well.”
Yamaguchi, who has more than 9,000 followers on Instagram, is used to being in the spotlight ever since he emerged as the charismatic kid who could hit bombs during Honolulu’s run to the LLWS title.
It also added some pressure to live up to the hype. Getting his commitment done he hopes will take some of that pressure away.
“It was a long journey and I think I got a lot of college attention early because of playing on that Little League team, which was good and bad,” Yamaguchi said. “I made sure to take the whole process slow and I knew I didn’t want to commit early. I wanted to visit all of the schools that were interested in me, and now that I’ve done that, there’s a lot of weight off of my shoulders with this commitment.”
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since that Little League season, but people still remember his face.
During his tour of California schools this month, he was at a Los Angeles Angels baseball game when a group of kids approached him.
“It’s unbelievable. I was with my family and all of these kids I didn’t even know came up to us, but that’s really what I want to do. I want to put Nevada on the map with local kids and get more of them to come to Nevada with us. That’s what I want to do because local boys can play.”
