Keene State College

And having that stable place to live really gave Mike the opportunity to improve his life and his situation.

He began therapy at HarborCare's Health and Wellness Center and enrolled at Keene State College to start studying psychology.

And since sharing his story with us back in August, he's purchased his first home and is moving out to Keene to finish out his education.

That is great.

A little credit or two towards your graduation? A little credit or two towards graduation.

I mean, we don't have a political science department anymore at Keene State College.

Oh, really? Yeah.

But you're a double major.

And, you know, it's being able to have your kids afford to go to a state school.

I mean, I think the decision when I read about Keene State cutting some of their programs, when I was on the school board back in the late 90s, the best teacher candidates we had came out of Keene State.

And it's really sad to see...

It's like death by a thousand cuts.

incredible.

Castleton five zip Keene state six, one NEC six, one lost to Williams two, one in overtime.

I, after they outshot Williams like 22 to one in the first period, I just remember that sticking out.

Um, Beat Southern Maine 5-zip, UMass Boston 3-zip, Plymouth State 3-zip, Morrisville 3-1, Cortland 5-1, Oswego 3-2, Elmira 5-2, Castleton 5-6-0, Keene State 10-0, 4-0, Amherst 2-0, NEC 14-1 and 11-0.

Southern Maine, 3-1, 4-2.

UMass Boston, 5-1, 4-0.

okay.

Yeah.

I can make a good living out of going into restaurant work.

And I ended up taking some classes at Keene State College in New Hampshire and I had been in construction trade, working in steel for a little while and found a safety course and I really liked it.

And it was an accident that I found it.

One

And I don't mean just hockey wise.

I just mean in general, it's, I just wouldn't see those two playing each other in non-conference games, but nevertheless, looking back at last year, I was pretty high on Keene state going into the year.

And I was very surprised at how poor they ended up, ended up finishing and, in the league, I thought they would have been a lot better.

I mean, they returned a lot.

In 2014, on the 24th anniversary of our beloved Pumpkin Fest, College kids ruined it for everyone.

So from my understanding, a bunch of Plymouth State kids and like maybe a couple of other schools were visiting Keene State College, which seriously escalated things.

Yeah.

Like party schools colliding.

And we are excited to break them down.

Now, just looking at where these teams finished in the final 2026 NPI rankings across Region 2, we're going to be talking about teams like Southern Maine at 30, Bridgewater State, who ended the season at 62, Brandis at 76, Eastern Connecticut State at 88, and Keene State at 99, as well as teams like Hartford, Nichols, Western New England, and and UMass Dartmouth, who are all in the top, let's say, 100 to 150 range.

And of course, national runner-up, Endicott, who finished the season number two in the nation and number 13 overall in the NPI because they shut the NPI off before the NCAA tournament starts, right? Yeah.

And unlike most of the other NCAA regions in the country, this laundry list of really good teams is spread out across not four conferences, but three.

I think this one's quite a bit more interesting, bud.

What do we got?

Yeah, the Little East is a nine-team conference featuring Southern Maine, Eastern Connecticut State, Keene State, not to be confused with Kane, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Boston, Vermont State, Castleton, Rhode Island College, Western Connecticut State, and Plymouth State.

Southern Maine won the auto bid in 2026, and there were no at-large bids awarded.