Tom Kunis, a nationally-regarded pitching educator, is in his second season back and sixth season overall with the San Jose State University baseball program in 2010, as the associate head coach. In addition to directing the pitchers, Kunis takes the lead on identifying pitching targets during the recruiting process, and coordinates the Spartan youth camps. He carries 26 years of coaching experience into the new campaign.

The impact of Kunis' return to his alma mater was felt immediately in 2009, as San Jose State won the regular-season Western Athletic Conference title behind a pitching staff that led the league in team ERA for the first time in 13 years since joining the conference in 1997. The Spartans posted a 4.66 ERA, well ahead of Fresno State's next-closest mark of 5.61. Kunis' staff led the WAC in complete games (6), shutouts (4), saves (17) and strikeouts with a school-record total of 453, among several other categories.

Three of the top six individual ERA marks belonged to Spartans, with David Berner (3.20), Ryan Shopshire (4.04) and Max Peterson (4.55) first, third and sixth, respectively. Shopshire became the first Spartan to earn WAC Pitcher of the Year honors, and was joined on the All-WAC first team by Berner. All three were selected in the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, alongside Trevor Gibson, with Jack Adams also earning an opportunity to play professionally.

Kunis is a well-recognized name not just in the Bay Area, but national baseball circles, from his eight-year stint as an assistant and pitching coach under Mark Marquess at Stanford University from 2000-07. He aided the Cardinal to four College World Series trips during that span, with national runner-up finishes in 2000, 2001 and 2003.

Kunis served as the head coach at Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif., during the 2008 campaign. He had previously been a Spartan assistant under Sam Piraro for four seasons from 1988-91. Kunis' pitching staff was the best in the Big West Conference for the first three of those years, as the program posted back-to-back 40-plus win seasons for the only time in its history in 1989 (40) and 1990 (43). Five of his pupils were 10-game winners.

At Stanford, Kunis' pitchers led the Pacific-10 Conference in earned run average in three of his eight seasons, were either first or second in six of those years, and in the top half in all but the last one. The Cardinal posted a team ERA of under 4.00 four times under Kunis' direction. Nine of his pitchers were selected in the first five rounds of the MLB Draft over eight years, highlighted by right-hander Greg Reynolds being picked second overall by the Colorado Rockies in 2006.

Under Kunis' guidance, right-hander John Hudgins put together one of the finest seasons in Stanford history in 2003, going 14-3 with a 2.99 ERA in a school-record 165.1 innings while earning Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year and College World Series Most Outstanding Player distinction. Kunis coached four conference Pitcher of the Year honorees in all during the past decade, with Shopshire (2009), Hudgins (2003), first-rounder and current Baltimore Oriole Jeremy Guthrie (2002), and first-rounder (No. 5) Justin Wayne (2000).

Kunis began his coaching career in 1984 as the head assistant at West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif., serving in that capacity through the 1987 season. In between his stints at San Jose State and Stanford, he was the pitching coach at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif., from 1991-94, when the Dons twice topped the Coast Conference in ERA, and the head coach there for the 1995 campaign, leading De Anza to a 31-14-2 mark and a California state playoff berth.

From 1996-99, Kunis coached the pitchers as the head assistant at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. During his tenure with the Mustangs, his staff consistently ranked among the best in the WAC (1996) and Big West (1997-99). He directed the Cal Poly arms to a 4.45 ERA in 1996 in just the school's second year of Division I competition.

A graduate of San Jose's Branham High School, Kunis earned his bachelor's degree from San Jose State in kinesiology, and a master's degree in sports administration in 1993 from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. He and his wife, Kim, reside in San Jose with their five children, sons Austin (16), Tyler (14), Landon (8) and Cooper (2), and daughter Megan (13).

They Pitched For Coach Kunis
Name - Last MLB Organization
Jack Adams - Kansas City Royals
David Berner - Houston Astros
Jeremy Bleich - New York Yankees
Jeff Bruksch - Cincinnati Reds (Retired)
Anthony Chavez - Anaheim Angels* (Retired) 
Erik Davis - San Diego Padres
Nolan Gallagher - Seattle Mariners
Joe Gardner - Cleveland Indians
Trevor Gibson - Colorado Rockies
Mike Gosling - Cleveland Indians*
Jeremy Guthrie - Baltimore Orioles*
John Hudgins - San Diego Padres
Max Peterson - Oakland Athletics
Greg Reynolds - Colorado Rockies
Mark Romanczuk - Arizona Diamondbacks
Ryan Shopshire - Toronto Blue Jays
Jason Simontacchi - Washington Nationals* (Retired)
Brandt Walker - Houston Astros
Justin Wayne - Florida Marlins* (Retired)
Jason Young - Colorado Rockies* (Retired)

* - Made it to MLB level