WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – An individual associated with the 50-year-old Eastern Connecticut State University softball program for 30 years as a player and coach, hometown native Diana Pepin '92 has retired  following a 25-year head coaching career

with the Warriors.

Serving as the program's sixth permanent head coach from 2002 through 2026, Pepin coached 969 games, winning 611, losing 355 and tying three for a winning percentage of .632. The Willimantic native and 1992 Eastern graduate served as head coach for half of the program's seasons, coached 51.2 percent of its 1,893 games and recorded 49.9 percent of its 1,224 victories.

Pepin steps away from the program as the all-time leader among Eastern head softball coaches in years coached, games coached and wins. She coached more than twice as many years and posted 300-plus more victories more than any other head coach in program history.

"I loved to mentor young women and make them strong women, and I think that's what I've always tried to do and Eastern is always where I wanted to be," said Pepin.

Pepin's association with the program began as a four-year player between 1988 and 1991 under the late Jeff Anderson – serving as a team captain in 1991 and helping the Warriors to four straight national tournaments, two second-place finishes, and the 1990 NCAA Division III national championship.

After coaching three high school programs for a total of eight years after graduating from Eastern, Pepin returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach under interim head coach Rich Page in 2001. Pepin was named permanent head coach late in 2001 and began her first official season as head coach in the spring of 2002.

Pepin's teams qualified for ten NCAA tournaments, won two Super Regionals (in as many tries) and reached four NCAA national tournaments. She produced 14 NFCA All-Americas, nine Little East Players-of-the-Year and ten LEC Pitchers-of-the-Year. 

A program which had won five national titles in a ten-year span between 1981 and 1990 had qualified for only one NCAA tournament in the seven years prior to Pepin's appointment as head coach prior to the 2002 season, with the previous three seasons prior to her arrival   resulting in losing records.

"I didn't know how long I'd be here [as head coach] but I wanted to get Eastern back on the [softball] map and compete at the national level, and I think I did that with the kids who were talented and wanted to win as a team," says Pepin. "I didn't think that I'd be here for 25 years… but coaching has been my life."

In Pepin's fifth season in 2006, the Warriors finished second in the LEC regular season with an 11-3 record – their highest finish since the inaugural LEC season in 1996. In 2008, Eastern captured a share of its first LEC regular-season title with a 12-2 record, and as the No. 1 seed, went on to its first LEC tournament championship. Beginning with that season, the Warriors won or shared seven of eight LEC regular-season titles and seven of eight (six straight) LEC tournament championships.

The Warriors' most successful LEC tournament stretches came in six years between 2010 and 2015 (18-4 record/four titles) and again in three years (no tournament in the Covid years of 2020) between 2019 and 2022 (11 straight wins and three straight titles). In a three-year span between 2010 and 2012, Eastern was 40-2 in the LEC regular season (including 14-0 in 2012) and went unbeaten (12-0) in winning three straight LEC tournament titles.

In 2011, Eastern won its first regional title in 19 years and followed that up the next year with another regional title and trip to the national tournament. The Warriors followed up regional championships in 2019 and 2022 with Super Regional titles at home that netted them their third and fourth national tournament berths under Pepin. All four of their regional championships came on the road.

At the outset of her head coaching career, "I absolutely felt a lot of pressure because I didn't want to let down Clyde (program founder Washburne who won the program's first four national titles) and didn't want to let down Jeff (Anderson, who won the fifth national title)," Pepin remembers. "The rich history of Eastern softball was in my heart."

Among program winning streaks of at least 15 games, five came under Pepin's watch, including a record 40 during a 44-3 season in 2012 which resulted in the program's fifth straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

The winningest coach softball coach in Little East Conference history, the 2017 Connecticut Scholastic & Collegiate Softball Hall of Famer led the Warriors to 11 LEC regular-season titles and seven post-season championships en route to being named LEC Coach-of-the-Year an unprecedented eight times.

As the program leader for 25 years, Pepin has coached 82.4 percent (412) of the program's 500 LEC regular-season and tournament games (the LEC began regular-season play in 1996 and post-season play two years later), winning 291 and losing 121 for a 70.6 winning percentage. Her teams were 250-91 (73.3 percent) in LEC regular-season play and 41-30 (50.6) in the LEC tournament. 

Among her most valued achievements, Pepin points to her ability to prepare her players for careers in the coaching profession. Among her former players currently holding down head coaching positions at the college level are Arielle Cooper Porter '13 (U.S. Coast Guard Academy), Erin Miller'15 (Wheaton College), and Kelly Paterson '13 (University of New Haven), with Molly Rathbun '12 the former three-year head coach at Muhlenberg College (2017-19) and three-year head coach at Trinity College (2020-22), and Alyssa Hancock '16 the former interim head coach at Mitchell College (2024).

"I'm most proud of the players who have gone on to coach at the collegiate and high school levels and they reach out to me and ask for advice, and I'm still mentoring them," Pepin points out. "That's what I'm most proud of because it says that when they were here, I was able to have an impact on their lives and they wanted – more than to just play Eastern softball -- to impact the next generation of young women."

Eastern has begun its search for the seventh head coach in program history.