Packard named ECU director of player development

by | Jul 14, 2025

East Carolina’s baseball program has announced its next director of player development.

Below is a press release with more details.

Check out Pirate Radio

Website | Facebook | X (formerly Twitter) | Instagram | YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

=====

Former East Carolina Baseball All-American Bryant Packard has been named the director of player development according to an announcement by head coach Cliff Godwin Monday.

Packard will work with Godwin and his staff in a variety of roles, including player video analysis.

Packard, who was selected in the fifth round of the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft by the Detroit Tigers and spent four seasons in the organization, served the Pirates the last two years as a graduate assistant. During that time frame, he helped ECU to a pair of NCAA Regional Finals (2024/Greenville, 2025/Conway), a regular season American Athletic Conference Championship (2024) and the AAC Tournament title (2025).

As a player at ECU, he was named to a record-tying eight All-America Teams, a unanimous First-Team All-AAC honoree (2018-19), AAC Player of the Year (2018), two-time NCAA All-Regional member (2018-19), an ABCA All-Region selection (2018), member of the Collegiate National Team (2018) an a three-time AAC All-Academic member. In all, he appeared in 156 games making 141 starts, batted .359 (201-for-560) with 22 home runs, 44 doubles, 58 walks and 1012 RBI.

In the Pirate annuals, Packard holds the longest hit streak in program history (32 games in 2018), while his .359 career batting average is third all-time and his 37 game on-base streak is tied for sixth-longest (2017). The 2018 season was his best in the Purple and Gold where he became the 16th player at ECU to claim the Triple Crown leading the team in in batting average (.406), home runs (14) and RBI (50), while also leading the Pirates in hits (89) and runs scored (51).

Packard was a member of two NCAA Greenville Regional hosts teams (2018 and 2019) where the Pirates garnered a pair of national seeds, an AAC Tournament title (2018), an AAC regular season crown (2019) and a 2019 Super Regional appearance (at Louisville) after claiming the Greenville Regional title.

Top Headlines

Shavon Revel could be Cowboys’ breakout star when he’s healthy

Rookies in the NFL are an interesting bunch. Some can make immediate impacts while others take longer to adjust to the schedule, style of play and expectations. USA Today’s Touchdown Wire took a look at a rookie from each team who could buck the system and make an...

Harold Varner III finishes tied for 23rd at LIV Golf event in Spain

Harold Varner III’s best round moved him up to a tie for 23rd place on the final day of play Sunday at the LIV Golf Andalucia at the famed Valderrama in San Roque, Spain. Varner shot -1 to finish at +2 with six other golfers. He had birdies on No. 4 and 14 and a bogey...

Connor Norby placed on 15-day IL

The Miami Marlins have placed ECU alum and third baseman Connor Norby on the 15-day injured list with left wrist inflammation. The Marlins made the move Sunday morning and it is retroactive to July 12. Norby did not play in Saturday’s 6-0 win. He is batting .241 (61...

Amos, Tiger-Cats rally to beat Hardy, Redblacks

Hamilton used 10 fourth-quarter points to rally and beat Ottawa, 23-20 in Saturday’s CFL game. ECU alum and Ottawa receiver Justin Hardy finished with six catches for 68 yards. Fellow ECU alum and Hamilton defensive back DaShaun Amos had three tackles. There were...

Norby strong again for USA Baseball in 6-5 loss to Japan

East Carolina baseball pitcher Ethan Norby had another strong start in a losing effort as USA Baseball dropped a 6-5 game to Samurai Japan 180 in the 45th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series final game. .@NorbyEthan racks up five K's across three innings of work...