Stetson Hires Steve Trimper

Stetson announced Saturday it has hired Steve Trimper to be its head coach. Trimper has been a head coach for the last 18 seasons, first at Manhattan and for the last 11 seasons at Maine.

Trimper takes over the Hatters from Pete Dunn, who announced his retirement Monday after 37 seasons as head coach. Dunn will fulfill the final year of his contract as head coach emeritus, focusing on fund raising and community relations.

In a statement, Stetson athletic director Jeff Altier said Trimper was the “complete package.”

“He has been successful on the field at both Maine and Manhattan, but he has also had a tremendous impact in other areas,” Altier said. “He has an outstanding record of developing young men, both academically and athletically, to reach their full potential. He is an accomplished fundraiser, has a long history of civic engagement, and will be a great fit in the DeLand community.”

Trimper is 481-466-4 in 18 years as a head coach. He led Maine to the NCAA tournament in 2006 and 2011, and the regular season America East Conference championship in 2013. The Black Bears have had three straight losing seasons, however, and went 20-35 in 2016.

Trimper has spent his entire career in the Northeast. Before becoming head coach at Manhattan in 1999, he was an assistant coach at Vermont and Wentworth College (Mass.). Now, he will take over from Dunn, the 15th winningest coach in Division I history.

In a statement, Trimper said he was ready to begin his new role.

“It is a tremendous opportunity to build on all that Coach Dunn, the coaches and the players there have created over the years,” he said. “I am so excited to get there and get to work.”

Nick Derba, who played at Manhattan under Trimper and retired from his pro playing career in 2012, was named interim head coach Saturday.

2016 COACHING CHANGES
School	Departures	Arrivals
Alabama	Mitch Gaspard	Greg Goff
Alabama State	Mervyl Melendez	Jose Vazquez
Appalachian State	Billy Jones	Kermit Smith
Army	Matt Reid	Jim Foster
Butler	Steve Farley	Dave Schrage
Cal State Bakersfield	Bob Macaluso	Jeremy Beard (interim)
Central Florida	Terry Rooney	Greg Lovelady
Florida International	Turtle Thomas	Mervyl Melendez
Furman	Ron Smith	Brett Harker
Jacksonville	Tim Montez	Chris Hayes
Kentucky	Gary Henderson	Nick Mingione
Lamar	Jim Gilligan (ret.)	Will Davis
Liberty	Jim Toman	Scott Jackson
LIU-Brooklyn	Alex Trezza	Dan Pirillo
Louisiana Tech	Greg Goff	Lane Burroughs
Maine	Steve Trimper	Nick Derba (interim)
Maryland-Eastern Shore	John O’Neil	Charlie Goens
Mississippi State	John Cohen	Andy Cannizaro
Missouri	Tim Jamieson	Steve Bieser
Nebraska-Omaha	Bob Herold	Evan Porter (interim)
Northwestern State	Lane Burroughs	Bobby Barbier
Oakland	John Musachio	Jacke Heale, Colin Kaline
Purdue	Doug Schreiber	Mark Wasikowski
St. Peter’s	T.J. Baxter	Danny Ramirez
San Jose State	Dave Nakama	Jason Hawkins
South Dakota State	Dave Schrage	Rob Bishop
SIU-Edwardsville	Tony Stoecklin	Sean Lyons
Southeast Missouri State	Steve Bieser	Andy Sawyers
Stetson	Pete Dunn (ret.)	Steve Trimper
Texas	Augie Garrido	David Pierce
Tulane	David Pierce	Travis Jewett
Villanova	Joe Godri	Kevin Mulvey
Wright State	Greg Lovelady	Jeff Mercer
Youngstown State	Steve Gillispie	Dan Bertolini