Beginning his 23rd year of college coaching, Eric Rasmussen returns for his third campaign as head coach of the Highlanders.

Rasmussen's 14 years experience coaching at the NCAA Division I level will be invaluable as he leads NJIT in its ongoing reclassification to Division I.

Rasmussen's Division I experience includes work with some of the top college and international-level coaches in the country. As a graduate assistant at the University of Texas, he worked directly under eight-time NCAA Coach of the Year Eddie Reese, who will lead the US Men's Swimming teams in the 2008 Olympics. A member of every US Men's Olympic coaching staff since 1988, Coach Reese has led the Texas Longhorns to nine NCAA crowns, including two when Rasmussen was his assistant.

Rasmussen also worked as the head counselor/coach for the Longhorn Swimming Camp for many summers, guiding some of the most promising age-group swimmers in the nation. It was there that he worked under two more Olympic head coaches; Mark Schubert and Richard Quick. After an outstanding college coaching career, Schubert was named USA National Team Coach/General Manager. He will direct Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Quick, also a six time U.S. Olympic coach, recently took over at Auburn after a 17-year run at Stanford.

"Having the opportunity to work for and, more importantly, learn from these outstanding coaches has been a major influence on my coaching technique," says Rasmussen. "Observing their styles, all different but all incredibly successful, provided me a lifetime worth of knowledge about swimming and about people. To have had the opportunity to be mentored by these men early in my career is priceless."

Returning to his native New Jersey from Texas, Coach Rasmussen served eight years as a head coach at the Division I level, leading the men's and women's swimming and diving teams at Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, NJ.

During his eight-year run, he orchestrated a mass overhaul of the school's swimming and diving records, with many of the records being broken numerous times. Upon his departure, only the men's 400 individual medley and women's 50 freestyle records predated Rasmussen's tenure as head coach.

Immediately prior to taking over as head coach at NJIT and after leaving Saint Peter's, Rasmussen was an assistant at Division I Loyola (MD) College. During his three-year stay in Baltimore, the Greyhounds experienced a great deal of success.

Rasmussen was instrumental in recruiting of some of the program's top swimmers, including a high school state champion and a USA Swimming senior national qualifier. In 2004 and 2005, he helped guide a swimmer to consecutive conference MVP titles. The culmination of his efforts came at the 2005 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship meet where Loyola swimmers recorded over 50 personal best swims, breaking 19 school records and three conference records.

Rasmussen began his coaching career at Ocean County College (NJ) where he spent six years. During his tenure at OCC, Rasmussen led over 40 athletes to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) championships where they collected nine All - American certificates.

Additionally, Rasmussen has been invited to coach at three NCAA YES clinics, worked as an assistant to the meet directors at the 1988 Olympic Swimming Trials, and served as the assistant ticket manager at the 2004 Women's NCAA Division I championships. He recently completed a six-summer run as a guest coach at the Lehigh University Swimming Camp and was a guest coach at the prestigious Navy Swimming Camp this past summer.

A 1983 Phi Kappa Phi graduate of Ithaca College with a bachelor of science in Physical Education, Rasmussen also attended graduate school at the University of Texas. Born in nearby Irvington, NJ, Rasmussen resides in Toms River, NJ.