FACULTY PROFILE
Ten Minutes With Jeff Trundy Jeff Trundy has served as the David N. Hoadley ’51 Baseball Coach since he joined the faculty of The Frederick Gunn School in 1997. Trundy is also one of the longesttenured managers in the history of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), where he is a local legend. Having just completed his 23rd year as Head Coach of the Falmouth Commodores, he has been named Coach of the Year in the Cape Cod league three times over the course of his career, and was honored in 2018 for his 20 years as manager of the ’Dores. As one might guess, Trundy lives and breathes baseball, and has since he started playing on a town team in Maine, alongside his cousins and uncles, at the age of 13. He grew up in Hebron, Maine, and began his baseball career at the University of New Hampshire, where he was the team captain and made the All-New England teams. After college, he coached the team at Corey High School in Augusta, Maine, where he received the Maine Public School’s Coach of the Year Award three times. He was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 and is a former scout for the Toronto Blue Jays. Many of Trundy’s former players in the CCBL attribute their success in the major leagues to him, according to Steve Kostas, past president of the Falmouth Commodores. Several of the studentathletes he has coached at The Frederick Gunn School have also gone on to play baseball in college and in the MLB, including Justin Dunn ’13 (Seattle Mariners), P.J. Higgins ’12 (Chicago Cubs), and Brooks Belter ’07 (Tampa Bay Rays). When he is not teaching or coaching, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Patti. They have three daughters. Q: What advice do you have for new students? A: Take it all in, experience as much as you possibly can. There’s so much offered outside the classroom. Becoming part of teams, clubs, doing as many things as you possibly can is a great opportunity for our students. Once they have the chance to look back, they’re going to look on this place more fondly than they do already. Q: What is your favorite day of the year? A: Opening day for baseball. It’s exciting. Baseball’s back. It’s also the time of year. The grass is getting green, the leaves are coming out, the warm weather is coming. There was a gentleman, Bart Giamatti, he was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball for a while and
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he passed away at a young age. He said: ‘Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again … and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.” It’s a very accurate description of people who have a passion for baseball and how they feel. Q: What would you say to Mr. Gunn? A: I would want to know what it was like standing on the Green watching that baseball game. I would like to ask him what it was like to observe a baseball game back in the 1800s. What was the focus? What were the things that were important? If I had to guess, I would say it was having fun. But what was it like to be part of The Gunnery team at that time and what was baseball like back then? Q: What is your favorite expression? A: I know Justin Dunn ’13 can recite these three goals: You work to improve each day. We work toward respecting our teammates. And finally, we work towards respecting the game. Those three things we live by. Myself and the coaching staff, Assistant Coaches Richard Martin P’20 ’23 ’25 and Ed Small, we collectively express those things on a daily basis. Q: Who has been your biggest influence? A: My father loved baseball. He loved the Red Sox. Growing up, he was one of five boys. Every one of them played baseball. In 1946, the Boston Post called them “the playingest baseball family in Maine.” You could look at a box score of the West Minot town team and there would be five Trundys in the lineup. It was ingrained in me. It would have been wrong for me not to play baseball. Education University of New Hampshire — BS, Physical Education/Biology University of Colorado — MS, Physical Education and Recreation Responsibilities Teaching Biology and Anatomy and Physiology The David N. Hoadley ’51 Baseball Coach Former Head Coach, girls and boys soccer, and former Assistant Coach, Girls Soccer Accolades The Noto Family Chair for Dedicated Service, 2018-2021
