New Wichita State Shockers baseball coach Brian Green sees a program with ‘no ceiling’

When deciding whether to leave the Pac-12 Conference to become the head coach of the Wichita State baseball team, it was the wife of Brian Green, Becki, who offered up the decisive words.

Green was in the midst of trying to rebuild the Washington State baseball program, the same task he would be charged with in Wichita, but his wife saw a difference when discussing the pros and cons of the Shocker job with her husband.

“She said, ‘This is the place. There’s no ceiling and there’s a chance to go to Omaha,’” Green said.

Reaching the College World Series remains Green’s life-long dream after nearly three decades of experience coaching baseball. At his introductory press conference inside the home locker room at Eck Stadium on Wednesday, Green made it clear that he believes his dream can come true in Wichita.

That’s a tall task for a program that has failed to qualify for the NCAA postseason for 10 straight years, let alone return to the College World Series, where the Shockers haven’t been since 1996.

But during a passionate 20-minute speech, Green seemed to win over everyone crammed into a packed locker room, including legendary head coach Gene Stephenson himself.

“We’re going to be about being real and being authentic and we’re going to be about telling the truth and pouring our energy into this program,” Green said. “What an unbelievable opportunity I’ve been presented, to not bring a program back, the program is here, but to chase a legend and chase greatness and for me to fulfill my life’s dream and that is to go to the College World Series.”

Green considers himself a college baseball junkie and was well-versed with the proud Shocker history, Stephenson’s accomplishments and the lore of Eck Stadium.

When he arrived at Eck Stadium, however, Green said he was overwhelmed by the history. He admitted he teared up seeing the pictures, reading the names, counting the championships in program history.

“To be able to share the same dugout as coach Stephenson, that’s a humble honor to me and my family,” Green said. “I’m just really honored to be here.

“I’ve been given an opportunity to rent a space in a program that is storied. I understand that. It’s my responsibility to bring it and respect the opportunity through work every day and with energy and gas every day.”

At his previous stops at New Mexico State and Washington State, Green has experience flipping rosters quickly through his junior college recruiting network. But he made it clear he did not view this as a “rebuild” and that his first priority at WSU is to recruit the 30-plus players from last year’s roster who are currently in the transfer portal.

He has already successfully flipped Wichita native Jaden Gustafson, a promising sophomore outfielder who removed his name from the portal and was in attendance for Wednesday’s press conference. Green said he has reached out to every single player from last year’s roster and conducted Zoom calls with the players, incoming recruits and parents.

“We’re talking about an opportunity to create a trusting relationship with a player that I didn’t recruit,” Green said. “So what I’ve tried to do is be very authentic with our players.

“(The zoom calls) weren’t a sales pitch. It was, ‘This is who we are, this is who we want to be and this is where we want to go.’”

How much influence Green can have on the portal players likely depends on who else is on his staff, which he said should be finalized soon. He did not rule out the possibility of retaining current staff members in recruiting coordinator Mike Sirianni, pitching coach Mike Pelfrey and video coordinator Nate Brisco, continuity that could help Green in his quest to convince as many players as possible to return to Wichita.

Regardless of who ends up joining Green, the manager emphasized the importance of “we” during his tenure in Wichita.

“‘We’ wins and ‘I’ loses,” Green said. “In ‘we,’ it’s about community and it’s going to be about a team effort and getting everyone involved is how we win. We’re in the era of the transfer portal and NIL, so we’re going to come knocking for the ‘we’ and we’re going to ask for help to get this thing going. We’re going to do our part in recruiting and developing, but we’re coming for the ‘we.’”

Green’s commitment to community service at his past stops is something that WSU athletic director Kevin Saal mentioned that caught his attention. According to Saal, Green’s teams at New Mexico State logged around 6,000 hours of community service in five seasons and referenced WSU’s department-wide goal of community service time is 1,000 every year.

Establishing a presence in the Wichita community was one of Green’s three guiding principles, as he emphasized multiple times that he was “all in on this community.”

It was easy to see why his teams at New Mexico State and Washington State both set attendance records while Green was in charge. He hopes to bring back the buzz at Eck Stadium once more.

“I want to sell this place out. I want to go to Omaha. I want to make this place rock,” Green said. “I think that if our kids are out in the community, being good citizens, being good people, then the community will see that we are out there trying to earn their support and I think we’ll get it back.”