Waterville, ME - Vermont State University Lyndon men's basketball player Gregory Gonyea Jr. (Dolgeville, NY) has been nominated for the North Atlantic Conference Man of the Year award, as announced by the conference today. The award encompasses all facets of the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete experience. Gonyea, a graduate student, was also a Man of the Year nominee following his senior year in 2025.
Gonyea is currently working toward his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Organizational Leadership. He has a 3.85 grade point average to date.. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a Management concentration and a minor in Marketing in May of 2025, completing his degree in three years with a 3.94 grade point average. At last year's commencement, Gonyea was presented with the VTSU Lyndon Alumni Council Outstanding Graduatiing Senior Award, He was also named the Outstanding Senior Business Student. As an undergrad, he has been named to the President's List five times and the Dean's List once.
Gonyea was named the NAC Men's Basketball Outstanding Senior Scholar Athlete for 2024-25. He has been named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court as a junior, a senior, and a grad student and was a NAC All-Academic Team selection in all four years at Lyndon.
Gonyea has served on Lyndon's Student Athlete Advisory Committee for four years and was SAAC Vice President as a junior and a senior. He was one of the organizers of SAAC's Trunk or Treat program, which brought Halloween cheer to the campus and the community. Gonyea was also one of 300 people nationally selected to attend the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in 2023.
Gonyea has also been active in service to the campus and the community. He has been a part of the athletic department game crew since his arrival at Lyndon, and has been an organizer of multiple service projects, including volunteering at the Caledonia Country Fair, wood stacking for community members, conducting middle school basketball clinics for Kingdom East School District and Good Shepherd Catholic School, organizing a 3 on 3 basketball tournament for his hometown's community festival, and coaching AAU basketball and at the VTSU Lyndon Hornets Summer Basketball Camp. Gonyea received the Skip Pound Service to Athletics Award in both his junior and senior years.
Gonyea was the captain of the men's basketball team in each of the past three seasons. He received the Michael Tessier Award as a junior and a senior, and was selected as the Most Outstanding Teammate as a freshman and a grad student. As a senior he was the recipient of the Dudley Bell Award, given to Lyndon's outstanding male athlete.
In 2024-25, Gonyea was named to the D3hoops.com All-Region 1 3rd Team, only the second Lyndon men's player ever to be so honored. He was a NAC 1st Team All-Conference selection in both 2024-25 and 2025-26, the only two-time 1st Team selection in Lyndon history. This past season, Gonyea averaged 20.5 points per game, third best in the conference. A year ago as a senior, he was the leading scorer in the conference, averaging 20.8 points per game. In each of the past two years he has also been among the conference leaders in field goal percentage and three-point percentage. Gonyea was a multi-time NAC Player of the Week over his career and was named to the d3Hoops.com Team of the Week in December of 2024, the first Lyndon player to be so named in the history of the award and one of only two NAC players to be named that season. He was the NAC Rookie of the Year in his freshman season, 2022-23. Gonyea has scored 1,551 points in 87 career games, the most by a Lyndon player in the modern NCAA Division III era.
Gonyea also ran for the Hornet cross country team in 2023-24 and 2025-26.
Gonyea shared his thoughts on how his time as a student athlete shaped him into the person he is today. "As a child, I looked up to high school and college athletes because of the impact they had on others. Now that I have been fortunate enough to become a student-athlete myself, I try every day to be the type of role model I once admired. My experiences as a scholar, athlete, and leader have taught me the importance of service, humility, and giving back."
"Helping young people has become the most rewarding part of my journey. I have volunteered at camps, coached clinics, and worked with youth programs in my hometown and on campus. This year, I organized a basketball tournament in my hometown called the Violet Classic to give back to the community that has always supported me. I also accepted a volunteer assistant coaching position at my former high school for the upcoming season because I want to continue mentoring younger athletes and helping them grow both on and off the court."
"Balancing academics, athletics, and community involvement has shaped me into a more disciplined and compassionate person. Being a three-year captain taught me how to lead by example, support others, and stay accountable during difficult moments. I want to be remembered not only as a basketball player, but as someone who positively impacted others. Being nominated for NAC Man of the Year again is an incredible honor, and I am grateful for every coach, teammate, professor, family member, and community supporter who helped me grow."
Gonyea is among five outstanding male student-athletes that have been nominated for the NAC Man of the Year award. The NAC Man of the Year award is modeled after the NCAA Woman of the Year program which honors graduating student athletes who distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service, and leadership. The NAC also selects a Woman of the Year using the same model, nominees for which were released on June 17. These are the two preeminent awards presented annually by the conference.
Member schools nominate student athletes from their own institution, then NAC Athletic Directors and Senior Woman Administrators vote to select the Man of the Year. Scoring for the academic achievement section is based on the undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of the nominee. Scoring for athletic excellence is based on the nominee's honors and accomplishments including awards and championships, and scoring for service and leadership is based on their involvement in campus and community activities and organizations over the course of their collegiate career. Administrators also consider a short personal statement written by each nominee.
The NAC Man of the Year will be announced on June 24, and will be honored on her campus during the upcoming academic year.
