Brian Stasaitis to lead Gateway men's basketball restart

Brian Stasaitis is walking into something bigger than a routine coaching change. Connecticut State Community College Gateway is bringing men’s basketball back, and the job is less about inheriting a roster than assembling one, defining a style and making the program matter again in the Greater New Haven region.

Stasaitis has been chosen to lead the restart at NJCAA Division III Gateway, where the school’s last men’s team stopped competing after the 2022-23 season. That makes this a full rebuild from the ground up. Gateway is not handing over a settled locker room or a finished depth chart. It needs a coach who can recruit quickly, establish standards immediately and give the campus a team with an identity before the first ball is tipped.

The fit is clear on paper. Stasaitis spent the past three years as head national prep team coach at The Bright School in Connecticut, and before that he spent six years as a general manager and head coach in the East Coast Basketball League with the Western Mass Zombies. That background matters because a restart asks for more than sideline coaching. It asks for someone who can manage personnel, evaluate talent, develop players and build a program where pieces are often assembled rather than inherited.

Gateway’s scale also explains why the move carries weight beyond athletics. CT State says Gateway is the largest of Connecticut’s state community college campuses and serves the residents and businesses of the Greater New Haven region. Restoring men’s basketball there is not just about filling a schedule. It is about giving the campus a visible sports presence and a credible face in the community.

The challenge, though, is real. NJCAA Division III does not offer athletic scholarships, so Gateway’s restart will depend on development, relationships and campus buy-in more than on financial leverage. That puts even more pressure on the first wave of recruiting and on how quickly Stasaitis can assemble a roster that can compete while the program is still taking shape.

There is history to work with, but not much of it. NJCAA statistics archives show a Gateway Community College, CT men’s basketball roster in 2011-12, and Patch reported that Gateway’s men’s basketball returned for the 2021-2022 season, beginning that year against Roxbury Community College on Nov. 9. The program later went quiet again after 2022-23. Now the reset starts over, with Stasaitis expected to be the coach tasked with making sure this version lasts.