WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Women's basketball alumnus Wendy A. Rogers, former track & field great Jason D. Edwards, and the 1998 Eastern Connecticut State University NCAA Division III national championship baseball team are among the Little East Conference Hall of Fame Class of 2021 that will be honored as part of the Eastern Athletics Alumni Hall of Fame banquet Oct. 16 at the campus's Student Center.
 
Joining Rogers, Edwards and the 1998 baseball team as honorees Oct. 16 will be 2020 LEC Hall of Fame selections Scott C. Chiasson (baseball) and Marc A. DiGiovanni (men's lacrosse). Chiasson and DiGiovanni were not honored in 2020 after the Eastern Hall of Fame banquet was cancelled due to the pandemic.
 
Eastern has had 11 individuals and one team recognized since the creation of the LEC Hall of Fame in 2012. Beginning with the 2019 induction, institutions have begun honoring their LEC Hall of Famers with a recognition ceremony of their choosing on their respective campuses.
 
Rogers shined on the hardwood from 1989-92, helping guide the Warriors to three 20-win seasons and a pair of NCAA Division III Final Four appearances. Eastern played for the Little East Conference tournament title and qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of her three seasons while compiling an overall record of 67-17 that included a 26-4 mark in conference play.
 
The point guard was a three-time all-LEC selection, earning first-team honors her junior and senior years, during which she totaled 1,003 points, 452 assists and 214 steals, and was later named to the LEC's 25th Anniversary Team.
 
As a senior in 1992-92, Rogers was named New England Player-of-the-Year and WBCA honorable mention All-America. That year, she was voted as the 1992 LEC championship tournament Most Outstanding Player after leading the Warriors to their first-ever LEC tournament crown with a 58-54 triumph over Southern Maine, which had won each of the conference's first five tournament championships. She went on to be named to the NCAA Division III all-tournament team as Eastern advanced to the Final Four for the second time in as many years and finished the year with an overall record of 25-6, which at the time was the program record for wins in a season.
 
The Warriors posted an overall record of 22-6 during Rogers' junior season in 1990-91, and claimed their first LEC regular season title with a league mark of 9-1. She helped guide Eastern to the program's first Division III Final Four that year, which saw the Warriors defeat Washington-St. Louis, 83-74, in the third-place game after falling to eventual national champion St. Thomas (Minn.) in the national semifinals.
 
Rogers still holds the program record for career assists per game (5.4), and capped her playing days as the program's leader in career three-point field goals made (98) and three-points field goal percentage (.380). She finished her collegiate career ranked second in career assists and fourth in career steals. She remains in the top-10 in program history of each of these categories.
 
Following her playing career, Rogers became a physical education teacher and high school coach before spending a decade in collegiate athletic administration and coaching, with stops at Regis College, Knox College and Salem State University.
 
First established in 2012, the LEC Hall of Fame now includes 93 individuals and two teams.
 
Ten former student-athletes, two former head coaches and one team comprise the LEC Hall of Fame's eighth induction class:
 
Wendy A. Rogers (Eastern Connecticut) - Women's Basketball
Jason D. Edwards (Eastern Connecticut) - Men's Track & Field
1998 Eastern Connecticut Baseball Team
Tyler Kathan (Keene State) - Men's Basketball
Kelly Smith (Keene State) - Field Hockey
Becky Campo (Plymouth State) - Volleyball
Kelly Landry (Plymouth State) - Volleyball
Kyle Allaire (Rhode Island College) - Baseball
Eileen Fenton (UMass Boston) - Women's Basketball
Rachael Barbarossa (UMass Dartmouth) - Women's Soccer
Ray M. Cabral (UMass Dartmouth) - Women's Soccer Coach
Katariina Pulkkinen-Hoaas (Southern Maine) - Women's Basketball
Jody Rajcula (Western Connecticut) - Women's Basketball Coach