Eric McNelly serves the University as Director of Athletics. In that role, he has overseen tremendous growth in the department through an emphasis on increasing opportunities for student athletes and developing athletic facilities.

In his first two years, Eric oversaw projects to build a new softball field, resurface Olson Field and the Field Hockey Field, to make significant upgrades to both baseball and tennis facilities, the creation of an esports facility, and to completely renovate the competition space in the gym. While no existing area has been untouched, Eric has plans to further build to serve the Eastern community and the student-athletes.

For the fall of 2022, he facilitated the addition of a football program and the hiring of a staff that recruited 95 student-athletes in its first season as a club sport. Eastern Football will compete in the MAC.

Under Eric's leadership, Eastern coaches recruited the largest incoming class of student-athletes in department history in 2022. He came to Eastern with experience in college coaching and several successful stints as a basketball coach and athletic director at private Christian Schools in South Florida.

After one season as an assistant with Eastern's Men's Basketball program, Eric was selected as the head coach for 2015-16. Over his four seasons, his teams won 57 games and made the MAC Freedom Tournament in each of his final three seasons.