No. 50 is coming home to Kalaepohaku.

Former Crusaders and New York Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani is the new baseball coach at Saint Louis, the school announced on Thursday afternoon.

“I feel kind of ecstatic. I feel really good. That’s my alma mater,” Agbayani said.

Agbayani, 52, played at Saint Louis, HPU and Oregon Tech. He was drafted in round 30 by the Mets in 1993 and made his MLB debut in ’98. In ’99, he had 11 home runs before the All-Star break, the second-most ever by a Mets rookie, and a year later he and the Mets reached the World Series. Clutch hitting led to his nickname, “Hawaiian Punch.”

In 2005, he helped the Chiba Lotte Marines win the Japan Series and was named Series MVP. He retired after the ’09 season.

Agbayani’s prowess as a softball coach was prodigious. His daughters, Aleia and Ailana, became All-State Players of the Year at ‘Iolani, where he guided the Raiders to a state championship in ’19.

In a press release, Saint Louis school president Glenn Medeiros stated, “We thank Coach Gusman for all he has done as our head baseball coach.”

Coach Gusman politely declined to comment on Thursday.

He became head coach in 2010, returning to his alma mater after many years as an assistant varsity, JV and intermediate coach at Kamehameha. His teams were regulars in the Star-Advertiser Top 10.

Under Gusman’s watch, Saint Louis qualified for the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Championships in 2010, ’11, ’14, ’17 and ’22. The ’20 and ’21 state tournaments were canceled due to pandemic restrictions.

The 2014 Crusaders won the state championship, blanking Mililani in the title game, 10-0. Gusman was a football official until retiring in 2021, spending decades working FBS college games.

The change comes just one month before varsity baseball tryouts begin.

“Like Coach Gusman, Coach Agbayani is a graduate of Saint Louis School and comes to us with an outstanding background in baseball both as a professional player and a winning coach,” Medeiros wrote. “We believe making this change now will give Coach Agbayani a jump-start in getting to know our students and begin shaping our baseball program into his vision of what it can become.”

Agbayani credits his success as a coach to his wife, Niela.

“She’s my No. 1 supporter. She’s behind me. I always have to ask her. She asks, ‘Do you still got it?’ I still got it. It’s a we thing,” he said.

Toiling away on dusty fields is in his blood.

“For me, it’s family first. I haven’t been coaching, just doing lessons and training my son (Bruin),” said Agbayani, who stepped down as ‘Iolani softball coach after the 2022 season, younger daughter Ailana’s last.

Expectations are at the highest at Kalaepohaku. Dan Hale guided the boys basketball team to the past two state championships. The football team established a dynasty ages ago but has not won a state title in the three seasons since 2019, and longtime coach Ron Lee was released following the ’23 season.

The gauntlet of ILH baseball is like no other. Gusman’s success for more than a decade won’t be easy to match.

“Coach George did a good job. He built that program at Saint Louis,” Agbayani said. “I’ll try to build on that.”

But winning isn’t Agbayani’s only goal in his new post.

“Just being around the kids, trying to share all the knowledge I have, teaching the fundamentals of baseball,” Agbayani said. “When they’re done at Saint Louis, I hope they can say, ‘This was the greatest experience I ever had, playing under Coach Benny.’ This is the pride of where I came from. It’s going to mean more to me and for the school. I played there. We practiced on the football field. We didn’t have batting cages. We didn’t have much. This is for the kids at Saint Louis. This is why I’m doing it.”