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Jennifer Bagley Trotter

Head Coach

Awards & Achievements

  • 4-time MIAA Coach of the Year (2004, 2009, 2011, 2016)
  • 2-time MIAA Tournament Champion (2014, 2016)
  • 2-time MIAA Regular Season Champion (2011, 2016)
  • 2-time Coach of Summit League Freshman of the Year (2022, 2023)
  • 11 NCAA Regional Appearances


Jennifer Bagley Trotter is entering her third season as the head coach of the St. Thomas softball team in 2024. Through her first two complete seasons as the Tommies’ skipper, she has amassed a 14-27 Summit League record and a 32-71 record overall. Her 18 wins in year two surpassed the 14 wins in her inaugural season with the Purple. She coached up the Summit League Freshman of the Year in back-to-back seasons first Brooke Ellestad in 2022 and most recently Avery Wukawitz in 2023. 
 
The Tommies took one win out of every team in the Summit League except the champion South Dakota State Jackrabbits in year one. In year two their conference highlight was a three-game sweep of Western Illinois, each in complete game shutouts by Isabelle True, Ella Cook, and Keira Murphy. Trotter’s first season was highlighted by a win against top-25 opponent, South Florida, and a single-game record-breaking 19 strikeout performance by Christina Crawford. Her second season victory against Big Ten opponent Wisconsin was the program’s first Power 5 win. 

Prior to St. Thomas, Bagley Trotter was the head coach at Missouri Western State University, where she amassed 676 career wins (the most in the history of the MIAA) and a 676-404 overall record. The four-time MIAA Coach of The Year led Missouri Western to two MIAA Regular Season Championships, two MIAA Tournament Championships, 11 NCAA Regional Appearances and 13 30-win seasons. Her teams have also featured countless academic honors and in 2016, Trotter was named "Woman in the Workplace" by the St. Joseph YWCA for her work with the organization's YWCA Choices program that mentors young women in the community. 111 Griffons earned All-MIAA status under Trotter, with five All-Americans, and three being enshrined into the Missouri Western Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Trotter came to MWSU from Humboldt State University where she helped coach a Lumberjack team to a 54-14-1 overall record in 2001 and a third place finish in the NCAA Division II championship tournament. Trotter was the pitching coach on that Humboldt State team that was inducted into the Humboldt State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. Previously she was the pitching coach and first-base coach at Minnesota State-Moorhead.

Trotter graduated from Mesabi East High School and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame for her play on the field as a prep student. The Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota native earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from Minnesota-Moorhead in 1996 and was a three-time All-Conference pitcher for the Dragons from 1993-96. Trotter is still the career strikeout leader at MSM, totaling 590 for her career. She was inducted into the Dragon Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2008. She and her husband, Regi, have three children (Quentin, Camille and Zoe).