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An athletics director who spearheaded NJIT to NCAA Division I status will now help determine what teams make the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA announced that NJIT athletics director Lenny Kaplan was selected as the new East Coast representative for the NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball committee.
The three-person committee is responsible for selecting the two at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament and seeding the annual six-team tournament field. The committee also has several other responsibilities such as proposing and implementing rule changes and helping determine the locations for future NCAA Tournaments.
Kaplan has served as the NJIT athletics director since 2000 and has worked in college athletics for the last 25 years.
The Highlanders under Kaplan successfully transitioned from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I membership and joined the Atlantic Sun conference. He also launched the Highlanders Athletics Campaign that raised more than $5 million to improve the school’s athletics facilities and increase its athletic scholarship fund.
Along with his experience at NJIT, Kaplan for the last four years has been a member of the athletics director executive committee for Division I schools without football programs.
Kaplan replaces George Mason associate athletics director Ron Shayka, whose term ended after serving as the committee chairman for the last three seasons. The NJIT athletics director will serve a four-year term that expires in August 2020.
The committee announced earlier this summer that Ohio State assistant athletics director Janine Oman will serve as the committee chairperson for the upcoming season. Oman is entering the third year of her four-year term as the Midwest representative.
In addition, Paula Smith, UC Irvine executive associate athletics director and the committee’s West Coast representative, is entering the final season of her term.