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When Nate Stewart moved into his new role as Athletic Director and Director of Athletic Development, he knew that the challenges of that job would make it impossible to continue to care for his basketball team. So one of his first major tasks in the office was to find the right individual to assume leadership of the Eastern’s Men’s basketball program. Stewart today announced that Eric McNelley will serve as the interim Head Coach for Men’s Basketball for the 2015-16 season.
As Stewart’s top assistant in 2014-15, McNelley has already played a major role in the progress of the program. Though they only had two upperclassmen in their top eight scorers, the Eagles led the Freedom Conference in scoring in 2014-15. Eastern started three first-year players from South Florida for much of the season, and Shaquan Turk earned First All-Freedom Conference Honors. With McNelley’s assistance the Eagles were abel to recruit several other talented players from South Florida for 2015-16.
“The decision to step away from coaching was an incredibly difficult one,” Stewart stated, “but I owe it to my family, the guys in the program, and to the rest of the department to focus on my new role. I feel very confident that Eric will continue to recruit at a high level and to continue to build the program.”
“I am humbled and blessed to be the head men’s basketball coach here at Eastern University. I want to thank President Duffett, Vice President Brigham, and Nate Stewart for this tremendous opportunity. I look forward to building on the strong foundation Coach Stewart has established the past 4 years and hope to develop a program that will make the current players, alumni and Eastern community proud.”
Prior to joining Eastern’s Men’s Basketball staff, the South Florida native has served on the college staffs at LaSalle University and at Barry University and has worked as a high school AD and head Basketball Coach. He also directed a successful AAU program in South Florida.
The Eagles open play on October 14th at Rosemont College. Eastern will host the eight team Division III tournament in Miami in December.
McNelley earned his Masters in Administration at Barry. He and his wife Jessica have two children and live in Newtown Square.
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