From the left are Eastern Connecticut State University sports information director Bob Molta; former director of athletics and head baseball coach Bill Holowaty; alumni award recipient and Jamestown native Keith Martin; and former head athletic trainer and faculty emeritus Dr. David Yeo. Molta, Holowaty and Yeo were all members of the Eastern athletic staff during Martin’s undergraduate years at Eastern.

Submitted photo

A Jamestown native was recognized for his leadership qualities last month by Eastern Connecticut State University.

Keith Martin (Class of ’89), who played and coached on one NCAA Division III national championship baseball team and two regional championship teams at ECSU before going on to spend more than 25 years in leadership positions in higher education as an administrator and coach, was presented with the Outstanding KPE Leadership Award at the university’s sixth annual education awards program in April.

Martin was among six individuals to receive alumni awards for outstanding contributions to higher education.

Martin transferred to Eastern in the fall of 1986 after two years at Jamestown Community College. Under Eastern Hall of Fame baseball coach Bill Holowaty, Martin played two seasons as an outfielder and third baseman with a career .300 batting average, helping the Warriors to the 1987 NCAA Division III regional championship. He later joined Holowaty’s staff as an assistant coach and head sub-varsity coach from 1989 through 1994, and was part of two regional championship teams, the 1990 team going on to win the second of the program’s four national titles.

“I have been so blessed with the people who have surrounded me all of these years,” noted Martin upon accepting the alumni award. “As a leader, you are only as good as the people that you surround yourself with, and for what Eastern Connecticut State University and the people who have touched my life and have done for me in my lifetime, I have the utmost gratitude. To coin a popular sports phrase, I have been ‘the luckiest man on the face of the earth.'”

After a nearly 20-year career at Jamestown CC, Martin was named executive director of Northwest Arena in 2018.