ELLENSBURG (Jan. 16) -- Ken Wilson and Rob Hippi, who both have extensive ties in the community college baseball ranks in the state of Washington, have joined the Central Washington University baseball staff for the 2013 season.

Wilson and Hippi both work directly in the recruitment of student-athletes to the Wildcat program, while also working with the CWU pitching staff.

Wilson, 66, was most recently the head baseball coach at Yakima Valley Community College, where he posted a 100-41 record over three seasons. A dual graduate of Linfield College (B.S., 1969; M.Ed., 1971), Wilson was the CWU head coach from 1987-91 before current head coach Desi Storey took the reins of the program prior to the 1992 campaign.

In addition to his time at YVCC from 2010-12, Wilson, a Randle, Wash., native, was a very successful head coach at Centralia College prior to his head coaching stint at CWU in the 1980s. The Trailblazers won 203 games over eight seasons (1979-86) and claimed Western Region titles in 1984 and 1985. He is a member of Centralia's Wall of Fame and was the head coach of the 1988 CWU baseball team that earned induction into the CWU Athletics Hall of Fame this past year.

“Ken has a great reputation as a recruiter because he's been doing it for so long,” Storey said. “He loves to recruit players, and because of the connections he has made over the course of his career, it should help us attract quality players at all positions.”

Hippi, 64, was a long-time assistant coach at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., where he helped build the Red Devils into a perennial power in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. LCC made 13 appearances in the NWAACC Championship game in Hippi's 23 seasons on the staff, claiming four league titles during that span, and more than 20 of his hurlers were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. In addition, Hippi has also served the pitching coach for the Wenatchee Apple Sox and the Alaska Goldpanners.

A former pitcher for the Wildcats, Hippi, a 1972 CWU graduate and Toledo, Wash., native, was inducted into the CWU Athletics Hall of Fame last May as an individual. He was also a member of the 1968 and 1970 baseball teams that have been inducted into the Hall, and at Lower Columbia College, he is on their baseball Wall of Fame.

“Rob has a good understanding of what he wants as far as pitchers are concerned,” Storey said. “He will have his own say as to which pitchers we recruit (to CWU) and, like Ken (Wilson), has an expansive number of connections throughout our state. He will help to get quality student-athletes to come to play baseball here.”

That duo, along with first-year graduate assistant Craig Driver and student assistant coach Andrew Snowdon, join Storey for his 22nd season at the helm of the CWU program in 2013. Also back to assist in the coaching ranks is second-year graduate assistant Scott Wilson who, like Hippi and Snowdon, played collegiately for the Wildcats. Driver is a former player and assistant coach at the University of Puget Sound.

CWU will open the 2013 season with a seven-day, eight-game road trip to northern California on Feb. 3, as the Wildcats face Cal State East Bay and Cal State Monterey Bay in a pair of four-game series. The team's home opener is not until Mar. 5, when CWU hosts Whitworth in a non-conference game.