31st Season
1,097-688-3 (.614)
Stetson, 1972 

In 1968 a young catcher transferred to Stetson after two seasons of playing junior college ball. As a Hatter he earned NCAA All-Star honors, graduated and moved on to professional baseball for two seasons with the Royals organization. In 1972 he decided to further his education and attended Georgia Southern University where he worked as an assistant coach and earned a masters degree. In his second season at GSU he helped the Eagles to a College World Series appearance.

In 1974 he returned to Florida and headed the baseball program at Apopka High School near Orlando where he led the prep club to a district championship. The Delray Beach native then returned to Stetson in 1977 as assistant coach under Jim Ward. In 1979 he was promoted to head coach when Ward moved on to Eastern Kentucky.

One thousand, seven hundred and thirty-one games, and 29 years later, head coach Pete Dunn has earned his way to the top of his profession. With 42 victories in 2007 he moved into the Top-10 in career victories by active Division I coaches. He is currently 7th with 1,070. His winning percentage of .619 (1,070-658-3) places him 41st on the active Division I coaches list.

In 2006 Dunn became the 34th coach in NCAA history to reach 1,000 career wins. He is one of only four active coaches to reach the 1,000-win plateau at their alma mater. 

During Dunn's tenure, Stetson has earned 16 NCAA Tournament appearances overall including seven in the past nine years. Dunn and the Hatters have gained a reputation as a post-season mainstay.

In 2007 Stetson won the Atlantic Sun regular season championship with a 21-6 conference record (42-21 overall) and Dunn was honored as the league's Coach of the Year for the fifth time in his career.

Since 2000, Stetson has averaged over 40 wins a season, advanced to seven NCAA Regionals including three regional finals, and won four conference championships. 

The second of those four championships came in 2005, when the Hatters (35-28) won three consecutive elimination games to capture the A-Sun title.  Following a tournament-opening victory over UCF and a loss to Florida Atlantic, Stetson defeated Gardner-Webb, Florida Atlantic, and FAU again to earn their 14th NCAA berth.

In 2004, Stetson (36-23) never dropped lower than second place in the Atlantic Sun Conference standings and Dunn earned his 900th career win on March 6 vs. Florida A&M.

In 2003 Stetson heated up late in the season and qualified as an at-large team for the NCAA Tournament.  Then in the Atlanta Regional, Stetson upset the no. 3 national seed Georgia Tech and later defeated East Carolina to advance to the regional championship game for the third time in four years. The win over the Yellow Jackets also gave Stetson (41-24) its fourth straight 40-win season.

A 12-game win streak in 2002 helped spark Dunn's Hatters to their third consecutive 40-win season (42-19) and third-consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. Stetson was also ranked as high as 22nd in the nation in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll.

In 2001, Dunn guided the Hatters to a 43-17 record and the team's highest-ever national ranking at no. 7 in the country. In addition, Stetson earned its 11th overall NCAA postseason appearance and advanced to the Regional Finals before falling to eventual national champion Miami. Stetson's 43 victories marked the third-highest single-season total in school history and the first-ever back-to-back 40 win seasons for the Hatters. 

Dunn turned in one of his best coaching performances during the 2000 season, guiding the Hatters to an Atlantic Sun Conference tournament title, a 48-16 record and an NCAA Regional appearance. The Hatters showed a 25-game improvement over 1999 and featured a pair of First-Team All-Americans in outfielder Frank Corr and pitcher Lenny DiNardo. Dunn was voted the league's Coach of the Year.

Dunn's vision and hard work also helped the Hatters build a stadium which has quickly garnered acclaim as one of the nation's finest collegiate facilities. Melching Field at Conrad Park, a $4.5 million stadium jointly built by Stetson University and the City of DeLand, opened on Feb. 12, 1999, as Stetson posted a 4-3 win over Louisville.

In the summer of 1998, Dunn served as an assistant coach for the USA National Team at the World Championships in Italy. Dunn spent the summer with Team USA, barnstorming North America and competing in the American championships in Nicaragua.

In his 30 years as head coach of the Hatters, Dunn has seen 70 of his players go on to the professional ranks. Last year A-Sun Player of the Year Jeremy Cruz, Casey Frawley, and Robbie Donovan were drafted. The year prioe Justin Bass, Brian Pruitt, and Nick Pugliese joined the pro ranks. In 2007 A-Sun Pitcher of the Year Corey Kluber was the team's top pick going in to the Padres in the 4th round. In 2003, Brian Snyder became Stetson's highest-ever draft pick when the Oakland A's selected him with the 26th overall pick in the first round. Snyder was just one of five Hatters drafted in 2003 and one of seven Hatters to turn pro over the summer.

Previously, pitcher Lenny DiNardo and outfielders Frank Corr and Jeff Christy were all selected in the 2001 Major League Baseball amateur draft. Former A-Sun Player of the Year Sammy Serrano was a second round selection of the San Francisco Giants in 1998. And in 1997, shortstop Kevin Nicholson also earned A-Sun Player of the Year honors and was subsequently drafted in the first round (27th pick) by the San Diego Padres.

Dunn has also had 26 athletes earn All-America honors, including Snyder, a Baseball America first-team selection in 2003. In 2002, Chris Westervelt became the first player in A-Sun history to be named an All-American (Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America) and an Academic All-American (CoSIDA) in the same season.  Westervelt then repeated the accomplishment in 2004.

The Hatters have also produced 12 A-Sun Players of the Year under Dunn, more than any other conference team. Westervelt won the league's top honor for the second time in 2004.

As a tribute to what he has given Stetson throughout the years, Dunn was inducted into the Stetson University Sports Hall of Fame in January, 1992.  He also received the 1996 Volusian Sportsperson of the Year award presented by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.  And in honor of his 1,000th win, the City of DeLand proclaimed Opening Day 2007 (Feb. 9) as "Pete Dunn Day." Later that year he was inducted into the Central Florida Sports Hall of Fame.

Dunn is actively involved in a variety of community service activities. He is a regular speaker at many regional and national coaching clinics.

At the baseball coaches' convention in 1997, Dunn was awarded a 25-year service award by the American Baseball Coaches' Association. Dunn also authored a chapter on catching in The Baseball Drill Book.  The book was commissioned by the ABCA, edited by former Fresno State head coach Bob Bennett, and released in January, 2004. He is currently authoring another chapter in a new ABCA book on the subject of "Evaluating Practice Sessions".

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