UNIONVILLE, Tenn. – After parting ways with longtime Community staple, Robbie Davis, following a 15-20 (1-7) 2024-25 season, the Vikings announced the hiring of former Coffee County assistant coach, Parker Gunn, on June 9, 2025, as the new Head Baseball Coach as well as a math teacher for 2025-26. 

“I loved Manchester, but it was time for me to come back home,” said Gunn. “This job popped up and originally, I didn’t think much about it. I just had a lot of people reach out to me and thought that I would be a good fit for the program. I already had some connections in Unionville, and they already had a math opening [to teach] so really the stars aligned. After I applied and got to talk to Dr. Ralston, I was bought in.”

Gunn took a year-long hiatus from coaching last season, returning to his alma mater – Shelbyville Central – to teach Algebra II and Senior Math, and Gunn says he started to feel like he needed to get back into baseball and coaching once the new year rolled around. So badly, in fact, that he and a buddy began some small-time umpiring in the spring, and now he doesn’t plan on separating himself from the sport anytime soon.

“Really I don't ever anticipate letting it go again,” he stated. “I told my family that I feel like God gave me an adventure and a ride to ride and I have no clue where it leads, but I wanna ride it and see where it takes us. Hopefully it’s somewhere good.”

Gunn began his coaching career in Manchester after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University in 2017, accumulating seven years of experience as an assistant coach, and he feels like the lessons he was taught were invaluable.

“I’ve learned how much service means to a community and how much it means to a team when they see those few leaders be able to step up and serve the team unselfishly expecting nothing in return,” he explained. “I feel like that type of embodiment lends itself to a community that people want to invest in. It was good that I had the time as an assistant – I always tell people that I think one of the biggest keys is humility – and when I came in I thought I knew everything about the sport. It helped me mature a lot and helped me realize what’s important and what’s not important.”

“I think kids learn better from people who they trust have their best intentions at heart.”

He also thinks that Community is the perfect spot for him and his family, who already have ties to the area. Gunn’s wife is a Community alum, Gunn himself student-taught at Community during his time at MTSU, and they plan on enrolling their 4-year-old daughter at the elementary school next fall. Meanwhile, Gunn is excited to begin work on building a culture in the program by focusing on the process rather than results.

“The biggest thing right now is I want good things to come out to Community,” he began. “I feel like…you look at the three county high schools, obviously good things are going on at Shelbyville and even at Cascade as far as developing facilities and fields and things like that, and I think Community is due. I think now is also a good time to get them bought into the culture we want to embody out there.”

“The way I run a program is very independent, meaning I allow the kids to have the freedom and comfortability to play the game that they’ve always played and play it at a high level, but not to fear failure or repercussions of failure through their coach to allow them to go out there and have fun,” Gunn continued. “We are probably going to be one of the more aggressive teams in the state because they are not going to fear failure in the way that I’ve seen other high schools across the state. 

“We’re not results driven, we are completely bought into the process of how we do things and why we do them instead of worrying about what the results are going to look like, and that’s really all I can expect out of them.”

Gunn says he wants a “revolution in the way that we think, the way that we work, the way that we’re curious, and specifically it’ll be how they buy into the individual aspect of trusting in themselves and having the freedom to approach the game in a fearless way.” 

Of course, he recognizes that this will take time, but he’s confident that Unionville has the right pieces in place for both him and the program as a whole to succeed in the long-term.

“Community has a small-town feel, and you just don’t find it in places hardly anymore,” Gunn said. “I like how everybody knows everybody, I like the same kids being with each other K-12, and I think that all helps build a culture. I like to be around people I trust, and in a small-town community you get to know people very well and you build a certain level of trust. If I’m going to choose someplace to live and where I want my daughter to be raised, I want it to be around people I trust and know she’s in good hands. 

Lastly, Gunn realizes that people outside of Unionville are probably sleeping on the Vikings’ coming into next season on the diamond, but he feels like this presents a big opportunity to surprise a lot of people.

“I’m just really excited. I wanna see a high-tempo, super-aggressive team that nobody wants to play. I kinda get this feeling that we’re the underdogs, and man, it’s a fun way to play. Expectations are low to anybody that’s not in Unionville. The people that are in Unionville, I think the expectations remain high and should remain high, and I think it’s going to be fun to go out and surprise a lot of people. I know we’ve lost some guys that have transferred, and I think the opinion around is that Community Baseball is gonna be down. I wouldn’t mind going out there and surprising some folks.” 

‘The truth is…Community seems like it’s the forgotten school. I think that it’s worth investing and looking into and I want people to see the positivity that I’m able to see out there,” Gunn concluded. “I think there’s going to be a revolution of sorts, and it may not be this year, but this is going to be a place that people wanna be in five, ten years from now.”