Haverhill, MA (April 9, 2026) – The national champion Northern Essex Community College men’s basketball team has made it a clean sweep of the end-of-season awards as the NJCAA has announced Alejandro Delgado (Haverhill) as National Player of the Year and head coach Darren Stratton as National Coach of the Year.

Delgado becomes just the second athlete at NECC to earn the award in school history. Colby Maiola earned the honor in 2016. Stratton became the first coach in the college’s history to win the award in any sport.

The Region 21 Player of the Year and first team All-American averaged 17.9 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. In 35 games played this season, Delgado recorded a double-double in 26 of those games with a season high of 17 rebounds on three occasions and 32 points against MassBay on January 23rd.

Delgado also averaged 3.3 assists per game and 1.8 steals per game while stepping up in some of the season’s biggest moments on the defensive end. In the closing minute of the regional championship against Quincy, he forced two turnovers to set up the victory, and in the national semi-final against Salem, he blocked what would have been a game-tying basket in the final seconds.

Stratton has amassed 384 wins in his legendary 23 years at the helm of the NECC basketball program. Previously the head coach from 1999-2015, he returned to lead the program again in 2020, and the Knights have been on a run of unprecedented success ever since, both at the program and region level.

This year, highlighted by the program’s first national championship, he guided the Knights to 33 victories. In addition to Delgado, Christian Sanders, Alex Johnson and Yunosuke Matsuda all earned postseason recognition from the region. Stratton also became the first coach in national tournament history to play all 15 players on his active roster in a national tournament game during the team’s quarterfinal win over Genesee.

Since his return to the program, in five full seasons, Stratton has led the Knights to all five Region 21/East District Championship games, winning the championship each of the last four years and advancing to the national tournament. Over that same time, he has a record of 147-20, good enough for an 88% winning percentage. Including both stints over his career, Stratton has a winning percentage of 64% at 384-243.

Learn more about the NECC Knights and this record-breaking season by visiting the webpage.