KSC athletics announced Steven Enright as the new head coach for the Keene State Men’s Basketball team.
According to an April 19 press release on the KSC Athletics website, Enright was previously the head coach at a private liberal arts college in Bridgewater, V.A., and also has coaching experience at the Virginia Military Institute, Pfeiffer University, Endicott College and his alma mater Mount Ida College.
Enright was happy to return to New England as he grew up in the Northeast.
“I’m from South Kingstown, R.I., and have been in Virginia since 2015 and now after nine years, back in New England,” Enright said.
Additionally, Enright considers Keene State a “destination job” as he is excited to take on this position at the college.
“As you talk to people associated with Keene State and Keene State basketball, you can tell there’s just a passion and appreciation,” Enright said. “ I think my job here is to come in and maintain what’s been working in this program for a long time but also identify areas that we can get better.”
KSC’s Associate Athletic Director Abe Osheyack said Enright was one of over 90 applicants to be considered for the position.
“Our process involved going through all the resumes and applications we received and we initially called it down to a list of 11 or 12 people … Steve made it through each of those rounds and it was our decision to hire him after meeting with all the finalists,” Osheyack said.
In terms of qualifications the committee looked for with applicants, Osheyack said they were not looking for anything specific but rather at each applicant’s experiences and backgrounds in general.
“We certainly interviewed people with head coaching experience, without head coaching experience, people from different geographic locales, but I don’t know if we had a strict identifier of ‘must have five years of head coaching experience,’ etc,” Osheyack said.
Regarding the strengths Enright will bring to the position of head coach, Osheyack said he was friendly and the decision committee saw potential in him.
“Steve is certainly a very direct, approachable guy,” Osheyack said. “I think he really resonated well with the players, with the staff, with the different constituent groups that he met throughout his on-campus interview. He’s a coach who’s proven a lot in one of the most difficult conferences in the country, where he’s been coaching for the last five years.”
Osheyack mentioned members of the basketball team were involved in the decision process.
“They were involved heavily in the search, we had three representatives from the team involved in every stage of the interview process and when it came to the finalists, all the members of the team were available to meet with all three people we brought to campus,” Osheyack said. “They certainly have already gotten to know Steve and to talk with him and get up to speed on his style and expectations.”
Osheyack added, “I think he’s ready for this as a next step in his career and we’re ready to have him.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
