DeShawn Hamlet rejoined the Southern Vermont men's basketball program as an assistant coach prior to the start of the 2017 preseason after being a standout player in the Mountaineer uniform.

Hamlet was a four-year forward for SVC before graduating in 2016 with his bachelor's in Business Administration/Sports Management. He was the ninth Mountaineer to score 1,000 career points and finished his time at Southern Vermont with the second-most points in team history (1,549). Hamlet was one of the best to ever play in the New England Collegiate Conference--garnering the league's Player of the Year honor in 2015 before being named to his second-straight All-NECC First Team the following year; he was also selected as the NECC Player of the Week five times in his career.

Coach Hamlet's 718 rebounds while a Mountaineer have him sitting at third on the school's all-time list, and he grabbed the fourth-most steals in team history with 123. He also graduated with the second-best free throw percentage among SVC players who took at least 250 shots from the line--connecting on 327-of-456 attempt for a 71.7 percent success rate.