Eric Bovaird is in his 15th year as men's basketball head coach for the Chaminade University of Honolulu for the 2025-26 season and is the longest tenured head coach in program history, passing the legendary and the late Chaminade Hall of Famer Merv Lopes who put 12 years of service. During his tenure, Bovaird has guided the Silverswords to three NCAA West Regional appearances, eight trips to the Pacific West Conference Tournament and one PacWest Tournament title.
 

Bovaird picked up his 200th career win in the penultimate game of the 2024-25 season, a win at Hawai'i Hilo. His win total ranks second all-time in school history, only trailing Lopes' 238.  Bovaird also sports an impressive career 189-145 (.566) record against NCAA Division II opponents.

In addition to on-the-court success, Bovaird's teams have also gotten the job done in the classroom, earning the NABC Team Academic Exellence Award each year since 2015-16.  Individually, guard Tyler Cartaino was the 2018-19 PacWest Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team in consecutive years which included becoming the first Chaminade student-athlete to earn First Team Academic All-America honors. Lee Bailey was an Academic All-West District selection in 2015 while Dominique Cooks earned the distinction in 2012. A total of 110 of his student-athletes have garnered Academic All-PacWest honors during his tenure.

Bovaird has also sent a number of his former players to play professionally overseas including Japan, England, Lithuania, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, India, China, Taiwan and Germany. His 2017 team saw five of his players sign professional contracts, the most in a single class.

In April 2021, Bovaird was honored with the Chaminade Award, an award that goes to a member of the Chaminade faculty or professional staff. The award is part of the university's Heritage Awards which chooses two members of the faculty or staff and one student which recognizes those in the CUH community who accomplish outstanding work in pursuit of the school's mission.

The 2019-20 team advanced to the PacWest Tournament for the sixth time, tying the conference record for appearances. Their win over Academy of Art in the first round gave the 'Swords their eighth victory, the most in PacWest Tournament history. Earlier in the season, on Feb. 10, 2020, Chaminade upset 16th-ranked Point Loma in San Diego, marking the program's first road win of a nationally-ranked opponent since January 2006.

Bovaird's 2018-19 squad won 23 games, the most-ever in the school's Division II era which began in 1986-87. The Silverswords spent much of the season in the NABC national rankings including a school-record seven consecutive weeks, peaking at No. 12 on Dec. 21, their highest-ever ranking in the poll. They finished the season by earning an at-large bid to the NCAA West Regional, Bovaird's third as head coach.

During the 2017-18 season, the Silverswords made their second consecutive trip to the Pacific West Conference Tournament, their fourth appearance in the championship's six-year existence. Midway through the 2017-18 season, Bovaird reached a milestone on Jan. 15, 2018 when he recorded his 100th career win at Academy of Art, just the third head coach in Chaminade basketball history to reach the century mark. Twelve days later, a win over Hawai'i Pacific University moved him into second-place all-time in coaching victories. The season was also memorable with a 96-72 rout over California at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

In 2014, his third year at the helm, Bovaird guided the Silverswords to the Pacific West Conference Tournament championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA West Regional, both program firsts. It was also the first time the 'Swords earned back-to-back trips to the regional, having captured an at-large berth in 2013. He also took CUH to the championship game of the inaugural PacWest Conference Basketball Tournament in Azusa, Calif., in 2013.

Of course Chaminade basketball is also synonymous with the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, the premier preseason college basketball tournament in the nation which features Division I powerhouses. Under Bovaird's direction, the Silverswords continued their reputation as 'giant killers' with wins over Texas (2012) and Cal (2017) in front of national television audiences on the ESPN family of networks. Their blitzing of the Golden Bears was their eighth win all-time on Maui and was their largest margin of victory over a Division I program.  Their upset over Longhorns, considered to be one of the school's greatest wins since the historic 1982 victory over No. 1 Virginia, sent the social media world into a frenzy.

Bovaird spent seven years as an assistant at West Liberty University, in Wheeling, W. Va., under legendary coach Jim Crutchfield (now at Nova Southeastern University). While at West Liberty, Bovaird recruited the top players from the Midwest and landed several future All-Americans. One of them was Alex Falk who eventually became the Division II National Player of the Year in 2013. During Bovaird's time at WLU, the Hilltoppers boasted the highest winning percentage in Division II with seven 20-win seasons, an appearance in the D-II Final Four, two D-II Sweet Sixteens, four NCAA Regionals, two regular season conference titles and a conference tournament championship. Known for its high-octane offense, WLU led the nation in scoring five times while he was there.  In his seventh and final year, West Liberty was 33-1 and averaged 111.3 points per game, the second-highest single-scoring season in D-II since 1969.

Along with a successful coaching career, he excelled on the court as well. A two-time All-American in 1994 and '95 at West Liberty, the sharp-shooting Bovaird broke school records in 3-point shooting, single-season scoring and career scoring average. After departing with most of the Hilltoppers' scoring records, he accepted offers to play professionally in Europe and Australia between 1996 and '98.

Bovaird was raised in Brockway, Pa., and graduated from West Liberty in 1995 with a B.S. in Physical Education with a minor in Special Education and Health. He also earned a Master's degree in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy in 1996. His wife, Leigh, is a native of Depauw, Indiana, who played basketball at Eastern Kentucky University, and was inducted as a 2025 Women's Silver Anniversary Team by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. The Bovairds have three children; daughter Jane, and sons Brooks and Blaine. They currently reside in Honolulu.