DANBURY, CT - Head men's basketball coach Sean Coffey has been named the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, as announced by the ECAC on Tuesday. 
 
Coffey led Utica to its second-straight Empire 8 regular season title this year as well as to its second-straight 20-win season. The team's 23 wins this season tied the program record for wins in a single season. Under his leadership, the Pioneers were selected to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since the 2006-07 season. 
 
In the tournament, Utica knocked off Babson College in the First Round, 72-60, before falling to host Rowan University in the Second Round, 83-72. Previously named the 2022-23 Empire 8 Coach of the Year (as well as the 2021-22 Empire 8 Coach of the year), this is Coffey's first ECAC Coach of the Year honor. 
 
The ECAC is an eighty-four-year-old organization with well over 200 member schools across all three NCAA Divisions - I, II and III. The ECAC exists to enhance the experience of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics and provides great value for universities and colleges by sponsoring championships, leagues, bowl games, tournaments and other competitions throughout the Northeast. The ECAC's esports platform is growing and now totals more than sixty colleges and universities and is expanding the geographic footprint for the conference nationally. The ECAC is also sponsoring competitions and leagues involving other varsity and club sports that do not fall under the umbrella of the NCAA.