The Eastern Connecticut State University coaching staff didn’t spend the pandemic complaining about the changes to the college game, roster logjams, an overflowing NCAA Transfer Portal, or additional years of player eligibility.
They leaned into it. Eastern now enters the 2023 season as the defending NCAA Division 3 national champion.
Also of note: the head coach of last year’s championship team, Brian Hamm, landed his dream job at D1 Yale University. The top position player, Luke Broadhurst, and top pitcher, Billy Oldham, transferred to UConn and the University of Southern Mississippi, respectively.
Not bad for a Little East Conference school during a time when many programs opted to wait out the landscape changes to the college game during the pandemic. Now three years removed from the canceled 2020 season, many of those changes are still in place for the 2023 season.
