Mitchell Holmes is looking to bring experience as the new head coach of Knight’s Baseball.
Holmes hiring comes in the wake of Dan Briand’s departure to coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Briand was hired earlier in the year to replace longtime Knight’s coach Jeffery Mejia, who went on to coach at Merrimack College.
“I’m pleased to welcome Mitch to Northern Essex. He comes highly regarded as one of the great up and coming coaches in the region,” said Northern Essex athletic director Dan Blair. “He’s going to bring a great deal of energy not only to our baseball program but to the entire athletic program and student-athletes at the college,” he added.
“Everything about Northern Essex, and this opportunity was such a no-brainer for me,” said Holmes. Adding that the school’s history, success and the new athletic fields are the main reasons he wanted to join the Knight’s program. “Jeff certainly proved that you can win at a high level at a school like this,” Holmes said that he’s always looked up to Mejia, and hopes to continue the success that the former coach fostered in the program.
Holmes comes with three years of playing experience in college baseball at SUNY Cobbleskill. He said he was “A horrendous baseball player,” and added that his true passion was for coaching. He graduated college a year early and started out his coaching career with some travel teams in the New England area. Holmes experience coaching also includes, the previous two year as the lead assistant coach at Babson College where he oversaw hitting and catching and helped lead the recruiting efforts for the Beavers, three seasons on the staff at Holy Cross and three seasons as the coach of the Vermont Mountaineers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
In his last season at Babson Holmes helped the program capture the 2026 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference championship and earn the third seed in the National Junior College Athletics Association Division III Southern Maine regional championship.
“I’m really excited to get to know the players,” said Holmes. He added across his different coaching positions he’s been able to see a few different types of players. “I’m looking forward to being around the kind of person, and player that Northern Essex baseball has,” he said.
Holmes was hired to be the Knights head baseball coach and assistant athletic director Tuesday, Oct. 20. He began his job at Northern Essex last Monday, Oct. 26.