Division 1 lacrosse continues to grow, slowly but surely. Late last week, the New Jersey Institute of Technology announced that they will become the 69th men’s Division 1 lacrosse program and will be set to compete in 2015. NJIT is a public technological school located in University Height Newark, New Jersey. With the announcement NJIT becomes the 11th school to join Division 1 lacrosse since 2010. NJIT will also join UMass-Lowell as it pertains to starting competition in 2015.
While the team is slated to compete in 2015, the team has yet to find a conference to join. In an interview with Inside Lacrosse, NJIT athletic director Lenny Kaplan told the website, “The leagues we’re looking at joining all offer lacrosse and are looking for lacrosse teams.” As pointed out by Inside Lacrosse, the most obvious choices would be the America East, NEC or MAAC conference since they are looking to add schools to either pursue an AQ in the NCAA Tournament or protect themselves from losing the AQ.
NJIT has given itself quite a condensed window to put together a full Division 1 squad. After all, they compete next year, meaning they will really have to scramble for recruits and evaluate the talent on the club team. First and foremost, they will need a coach to contact possible recruits and evaluate said talent. As Kaplan says, “We’ve gotten about 35 resumes, and the goal is to interview by the end of next week, bringing three to five guys to campus. I’d like to get it done relatively quickly; not rush it, but I’d like to be done by Thanksgiving.”
With the announcement to compete in 2015, don’t expect NJIT to look like a Division 1 team for at least another couple of years. The club team that is currently playing at NJIT consists of only 25 to 30 players, meaning the players they receive between now and the 2014-2015 season are most likely going to be of the walk-on variety or maybe even a couple of transfers.
NJIT also becomes the fourth school to play Division 1 lacrosse in the state of New Jersey, joining Rutgers, Monmouth (who will start this season) and Princeton.
