**Locker Room Talk is a Slice of Culture series where we highlight different athletes, coaches and more from local high schools and colleges from Hudson County and New Jersey overall.
Photo by Neidy Gutierrez / SOC Images.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Bryce Eaton was looking for a second chance after redshirting his freshman year at Central Michigan University, and it was Saint Peter’s University who was the first school to give him that chance.
Since coming to Jersey City, New Jersey to play for the Peacocks, Eaton has wrapped up his first season in competitive collegiate play as the third-best scorer on the team and has been dubbed twice as Athlete of the Month, including most recently for the month of March. Looking back, the point guard expressed how he feels in his new home away from home.
“I love it here. It’s a great environment. It’s a different environment, even though I’m from Detroit and this is Jersey, I just get to learn a lot of new stuff and meet a lot of new people,” Eaton told Slice of Culture.
Eaton helped SPU get on the board against Canisius this past Saturday, winning in their final regular season game 70-62. The victory helped keep them in contention for the MAAC Tournament, but they needed Fairfield to lose against Quinnipiac to lock in the final tournament spot.
The Peacocks have ended their 2024-25 season with a record of 12-16 overall and 7-13 in MAAC play.
Back home in Detroit, Eaton said his dad put him into sports when he was about three or four years old. He tried soccer, baseball, football and basketball, but ended up choosing his favorite one.
“And clearly, you see, this is the sport that I really like and really love to do,” he smiled.
Eaton made noise in high school at Detroit Edison Public School Academy. He played varsity ball for all four years and earned accolades like:
- Team Division 3 All-State Honors by Associated Press
- Three-time Detroit News and Detroit Free Press All-Area honoree
- Detroit Free Press All-Area honorable mention as a freshman
- Scored 1,600 career points
“[Those awards] helped me work even harder. Even though it is high school rewards, I want to achieve college rewards and even more awards in the long run and [achieve] higher talent,” he said, and that’s exactly what he did in his first year with Saint Peter’s.
But the guard explained how he ended up in Jersey City by chance.
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Last year, when he was looking for a new start, after some time at Central Michigan University, he entered the transfer portal on the last day. SPU was the first school to contact him as he “wasn’t given no second chances with other schools” so he just took it and “[ran] with it.”
Since then, Eaton’s had time to adjust to his new environment and, most importantly, new team. When asked to describe his teammates, the guard said they’re “real funny,” especially shooting guard Armoni Ziegler.
Off the court, you might catch Eaton and Ziegler playing jokes on one another or laughing at something together.
“Me and Moni… he was the first dude I met on the team and it’s like, we just bonded real easy,” he laughed. “We just funny, we all tell jokes with each other, we crack on each other and all that.”
But, on the court, you’ll see them side-by-side, making up some of the most crucial pieces on the Peacocks’ offense. Eaton and Ziegler consistently found themselves on the board together, especially in Eaton’s career-high game versus Sacred Heart on Feb. 23; Eaton finished with 27 points while Ziegler recorded his first career double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds.
And while the Peacocks weren’t able to make it to the MAAC tournament this season, Eaton expressed his gratitude to the community.
“They came out. I feel like they’ve been really well,” he said. “They’ve been supporting us and never let us down.”
Know a local athletic team we should feature? Email aromero@sliceofculture.com and hshabbir@sliceofculture.com
