Ryan McNeil, who came to NJIT in August 2004, is leading a resurgence of the university's two volleyball teams.

Originally hired as head coach of the men's team and assistant coach of the women's team, he served as interim head coach of the women's team in 2005 and became permanent head coach for the 2006 season. He has been the men's head coach since 2005. And he has made a positive mark on both teams.

On the men's side, taking over a team that last had a winning record in 2000, he guided his first squad to a .500 overall record in 2005 and followed that up with Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association playoff appearances in 2006 and 2007 and the championship of the EIVA Hay Division with a 9-1 division record in 2007.

In 2006, the Highlander men made the EIVA playoffs for the first time since 2000. And in 2007, NJIT posted a 19-10 record, compiling the program's best wins total since it was 20-13 in 1995.

The first-place Hay Division finish in 2007 has earned the Highlanders promotion to the EIVA's higher power-rated division, the Tait, where NJIT will compete for the first time since 2002.

On the women's side, McNeil assisted on a 2004 team that made a double-digit jump in wins from the previous season and then became interim head coach in 2005 and permanent head coach in 2006.

In 2006, he led NJIT into its first season of Division I competition. Despite facing Division I competition with only two starters returning from the previous year, the Highlanders won 10 matches, surpassing the team's nine wins in its last season at the Division II level in 2005.

Sporting a lineup of three freshmen and four sophomores in the top seven, McNeil guided the young 2006 squad to a 7-7 mark over the last 14 matches. In 2007, the Highlander women took another step, logging 13 wins--three more than in 2006--and NJIT won five of its last seven 2007 regular season matches.

Championship-level volleyball is nothing new to McNeil, who was a standout player in both Canada and the United States. Later, as an assistant coach at Lewis University in Illinois, he helped coach the men's team that won the 2003 national championship match and the women's team that qualified for two NCAA Tournaments.

A native of Montego Bay, Jamaica, McNeil resided in Ontario, Canada, for 15 years. He was MVP of two college teams in Canada--Sheridan College and Ryerson University.

Transferring south of the border to Lewis University in Illinois, McNeil played on the Flyers' 1998 national semifinalists. He turned to coaching at Lewis, assisting with both the men's and women's teams.

In his two years as an assistant with the Lewis men, they qualified for the NCAA tournament twice, won two Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Conference crowns and captured the 2003 national title match. He coached with the Lewis women for four seasons and during his tenure the Flyers made the NCAA Tournament twice and achieved national ranking in 2002.

McNeil resides in Newark.