Coupeville grad Aaron Trumbull is now a fully-pinned member of Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue. (Shelli Trumbull photos)
Trumbull and fiancée Hannah Gluth.
Different uniform, same strong commitment to those around him.
Coupeville grad Aaron Trumbull, who was one of the best to ever pull on a Wolf uniform, never left his teammates high and dry in the many years I watched him play baseball and basketball.
He had talent and drive, but it was the way he always backed up those around him, which impressed me most as he put together a prep career which eventually landed him in the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
A key member of the 2010 Central Whidbey Little League Juniors baseball squad which shocked the hardball world by beating the big city boys to win a state title, Trumbull showed grace and maturity beyond his years.
That came to the forefront one afternoon years later, when he was an established star for Willie Smith’s CHS baseball squad.
That season, the Wolf JV didn’t have enough players to fill out a full nine-man roster, so every game a varsity guy would swing down to fill out the lineup.
Trumbull, a top pitcher and first-baseman, had already done his duty a few days before, and this game, there was a different varsity player scheduled to make the trip to the diamond.
Except, said player threw a public hissy fit about the “demotion.”
There was a brief pause, as Smith’s ears began to turn bright red. A righteous explosion was a’comin’, and I was riveted.
But then, without a word, Trumbull jumped off the bench, snatched the ball away from the whiner, motioned to the JV players to follow him, and headed out to make sure his younger teammates would play.
Even if he never hit a jump shot (and he hit a lot of them), even if he never knocked in the state title winning run (which he did), that day Aaron, with no fanfare, showed why he will always be remembered fondly by teammates, coaches, and fans.
He’s just a stand-up guy.
And now Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue gets to have Trumbull on its team, after the former Wolf made the jump Friday from probationary to being a fully-pinned firefighter.
Central Kitsap just hit a homerun.
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