PAUL FUNK JR, right, pictured here with his UConn teammates. The Wakefield Twi League will be dedicating their 2023 season this summer to Funk, who passed away in April. (UConn Baseball Photo)
Registration now open for new players
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Twi League would like to announce the dedication of the 2023 season to former player Paul Funk Jr. Funk passed away suddenly in April while coaching the game he loved to play. He was 51 years old.
Paul got his first opportunity to play in the Twi in 1986, when he was called up to fill in, on an emergency basis, for the East Side/Mel and Son’s Oilers. Medical School commitments forced Dr. Kevin McGrail to miss two games prompting East Side to look for help. Paul was only 15 at the time.
The two-game tryout led East Side/Mel and Son’s to approach Wakefield Babe Ruth and get a waiver to allow Paul to play in the over 18 league. A press release at the time stated how Funk was delighted to be selected by an “original four” team.
Paul would go on to be the starting shortstop, as a sophomore, for the 1987 Wakefield High baseball team that went 18-2 that season but lost in the first round of the state tournament to a Jeff Judon-led Salem team.
After high school, Paul would go on to be the starting shortstop for the University of Connecticut for four years. Stops on Cape Cod (legion ball), Alaska (the Cape Code league of the west) and the Intercity League (Wakefield Merchants) would split his time with the Twi League. A career .340 hitter, Funk would play in parts of the next 12 seasons. He contributed to three world championships in the 1994-96 seasons and finished 2nd in the MVP voting for the 1995 season (.382/4/19).
After his playing career was over, Funk would take up coaching football and baseball for Everett High School and then Dennis-Yarmouth High. He helped win multiple MIAA Super Bowls in Everett and two more as head coach of the D-Y Dolphins. In 2019, he would become the principal of Dennis-Yarmouth High and at the time of his passing, was going to be principal of Duxbury High School. Paul developed those leadership qualities on the fields of Wakefield.
He recently stated he would not have wanted to grow up anywhere but in Wakefield. Rest in Peace, Paul.
The Twi League draft will be held on June 14. To sign up, please contact wakefieldtwileague@gmail.com or go to the website: www.wakefieldtwileague.com/signup.
