Even before Giesen earned honor after honor at Drake High in San Anselmo, CA, sports were a part of his life, starting in utero (his dad was University of San Francisco basketball star Don Giesen) and continuing throughout his youth — Giesen has three older brothers and one sister that all played various sports for Drake. That passion for athletics has never wavered. Throughout his years at Drake, Giesen played a variety of sports — tennis as a freshman and sophomore, baseball as a senior and soccer for all four years.
He received a Sportsmanship Award twice — once for soccer as a freshman, and again as a sophomore on the tennis team where he was also the No. 1 player for the Pirates that year. As a senior, he was MVP for the varsity baseball team as well as a unanimous First-Team All-League selection, named MVP and First-Team All-League for soccer and was awarded the Senior Athlete Award.
He rode his success as a center fielder to College of Marin, where he played for former Redwood Coach Al Endriss, whom he credits as one of his biggest influences. While at COM, Giesen stole 32 bases - a career record, and used that success to secure a baseball scholarship to USF.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business with a focus in Marketing, Giesen picked up fast pitch softball, playing for 25 years and earning All-America honors three times, twice as a First-Team selection and once on the Second-Team. Up until a year ago, Giesen also played in an adult basketball league before an ankle injury sidelined him.
Giesen said that he has simply been an athlete searching for the sport he was meant to play — “An athlete torn between which way to go. If they had hockey here in California, I’d probably have picked that up too,” he joked (MarinIndJournal). He was inducted into the Marin Athletic Hall of fame in 2012.
Wayne Giesen, currently the team's leading hitter, is a perfect example of how the influx of Bay Area junior college talent as made the Diamond Dons a much better baseball team. A transfer last year from the College of Marin who played high school ball at Sir Francis Drake, Giesen was influenced to come to USF by the long time Giesen relationship with the university. His father, Donald, played on the 1949 basketball team that won the NIT championship. Wayne also has a brother that graduated from USF with a Marketing Degree.
Giesen almost made the choice not to play baseball at all when he was in high school. Although he was active in Little League baseball, he initially decided to devote his athletic time to soccer and tennis his first three years in high school. However, Giesen was left with a dilemma during the Spring of his senior year at Drake. "I started to suffer tennis burn-out and I was left with a last minute choice, track or baseball," he said. He decided on baseball, and he played well enough to be named All-County at the end of the season. He was named MVP{ in soccer and number one on the tennis team at Drake, and was Athlete of the Year in 1981.
Although his fine 400 batting average doesn't reflect it, Giesenhas suffered from a rash of nagging injuries over the last month. Those injuries occurred after colliding with an outfield fence at Stanford, sliding into a base at Cal, and getting hit by a pitch in another game. "I've had to adjust my swing and have lost considerable power.
*The situation is better now? he said, "but I was playing on sheer will power for awhile."
Overall, Giesen thinks USF's outfielders are pretty good. **We have a good hitting outfield that is versatile and can play other positions," referring especially to Rich Herbert and Dave Sheldon. Giesen wants to improve his base running and his throwing in the outfield. "I'm getting, called Dr. Jekyll because of the way some of my throws end up in the wrong places."
Although the expensive tuition and commute are negative factors, he enjoys USF's small atmosphere and overall environment. A Marketing major, he also likes the quality of a Business school (DonYearbook).
