Coach Jeff Trundy Honored for 20 Years of Leading the Falmouth Commodores

Julia Alling '81 P'19 was in attendance and described it as “the kind of summer night made for baseball.” There were trivia contests: Where does Coach Trundy teach and coach? The Gunnery. What milestone tally did he celebrate last year? 400 victories. In what state is Coach Trundy a Baseball Hall of Famer? Maine. There were multiple-choice questions: Which course doesn't he teach? “It turns out that Coach doesn't teach philosophy in the ‘off-season,” though I think those of us who have watched him work with students on and off the field would disagree,” Alling said.

“Oh yes, there was another win to chalk up,” she said, citing the Commodores 8-3 win over Cotuit. But, she added, “For Coach, it was about the kids. As he rounded up his team and the fans filed out of the stadium, he was still doing what he does so well – coaching the kids.

Trundy's baseball career was highlighted in an article in the team's 2018 Program Book, written by Steve Kostas, a friend and Past President of the Falmouth Commodores. In it, Kostas acknowledged that Trundy's 20 years as manager “may not be well known beyond the boundaries of the Cape Cod Baseball League's (CCBL) coaches, players, or fan base, but to Falmouth, it is these achievements that have made him a true icon.”

In social media posts this week, the Commodores hailed Trundy as “a Cape Cod legend,” and the team and fans alike tag their posts with #WinItForTrundy.

Every summer, after commencement and final exams, when all the students have left The Gunnery campus, Trundy makes his annual pilgrimage to Cape Cod, where he has been coaching for nearly two dozen years. As Kostas pointed out, Trundy started as an assistant manager for the Cotuit Kettleers in 1995-1996 and became an assistant coach for the Commodores in 1997. Two years later, he was promoted to head coach and field manager. He has twice been voted the league's Manager of the Year by his peers, receiving the Mike Curran Award in 2004 and 2016.

“Jeff's quiet, professional and accessible demeanor has endeared him to his peers and engendered tremendous support amongst Commodores management, volunteers, fans, and most importantly, the players,” Kostas said, noting that many players attribute their success in the major leagues to Trundy.

Many of the players Trundy has coached at The Gunnery have also gone on to play baseball in college and in the MLB, including Justin Dunn '13 (New York Mets), P.J. Higgins '12 (Chicago Cubs), and Brooks Belter '06 (Tampa Bay Rays).

As Kostas recounted, Trundy began his baseball career at the University of New Hampshire, where he was the team captain and a star player. 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. In recognition of his contributions to the program, he was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. He was a scout for the Toronto Blue Jays and has coached baseball at The Gunnery for 21 years, while also coaching girls varsity soccer and teaching biology and anatomy and physiology.Heading into the final game of regular season on Wednesday, the Commodores' David Simms talked about what it was like playing for Trundy: “Everything's rolling, Everyone's feeling great, and the most important thing is what coach Trundy preaches to us – having fun,” Sims said in a Commodores blog post.

The same post quoted Trundy saying: “If you're having fun, you play that much better.”