Hall of Fame
John Trail was an influential head coach and assistant coach at Shippensburg for almost a decade in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Trail established softball at Shippensburg University, beginning with their status as a club sport in 1977. From 1979-82, Trail guided the softball team as its head coach. Shippensburg posted a 58-24-1 record in four seasons, including a second-place finish in the 1982 PSAC tournament.
The 1982 team was one of the best in Shippensburg softball history. Led by All-American pitcher Sharon Boyd, the Lady Raiders finished second in the nation in the AIAW Division III national championship tournament. It remains the farthest that Shippensburg has ever gone in a national tournament.
Trail also served as a women’s basketball assistant coach for several seasons before his appointment as the head softball coach. He served as the acting head coach of the women’s basketball team for the 1980-81 season and guided the squad to a 14-4 record, losing just twice in PSAC play.
He is a 1971 graduate of Penn State University who first attended the Mont Alto branch campus, where he played basketball. Trail went on to receive his master’s degree in counseling from Shippensburg in December of 1977.
Trail was a teacher and administrator in the Chambersburg Area school district for 36 years, a role he maintained during his entire tenure as a coach at Shippensburg, until his retirement in 2007. He primarily served as a physical education teacher at the elementary school level, and served as a department chair in his time after Shippensburg.
In his retirement, Trail continues to work, as he has for several years, as a PIAA softball official.
