Baseball

Neil Ioviero is entering his eleventh season at the helm of the Kean University baseball program. Under his guidance, the team has grown into not only one of the top teams in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) but one of the premiere programs in the nation culminating with the program's first national championship in 2007.

Ioviero, who collected his 250^th career win during the course of the 2007 season, currently boasts a 281-125-2 record, the third highest win total of any coach in athletic department history.  Ioviero was also garnered with several honors in 2007 as he was named the 2007 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Division III National Coach of the Year, the NCAA Division III Regional Coach of the Year and the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association (NJCBA) Division II/III Coach of the Year.  In addition, he also was named the NJAC Coach of the Year for the second time (2005 and 2007).

During the 2007 campaign, the Cougars set many milestones including their first ever trip to the World Series, a regional championship and setting a new standard for wins in a season with 43.  After receiving one of 14 national "wild-card" bids, the Cougars would go on to win eight straight post-season games, including four in regional play.  In an ironic twist, Kean needed 10 innings in both the regional and World Series championship games and defeated both of their opponents by an identical score of 5-4.

In 2002, Kean University captured the schools first ever NJAC Championship and with a 33-12 record advanced to the NCAA Tournament. That year the Cougars then set school records for most wins and best winning percentage.

In his first season, 1998, Ioviero led the Cougars to a 25-9 mark and earned an invitation to the Division III Regional Tournament, only the second time in school history then that the Cougars had made the national tournament.

In his first ten years in the dugout, Ioviero has developed two first-team All-Americans, 12 regional All-Americans, 16 All-State and 15 All-NJAC players. Moreover, eleven of those players have gone on to play professionally following the end of their Cougar careers.

A standout pitcher in college, Ioviero played for the legendary coach Fred Hill at Rutgers University. As a Scarlet Knight, Ioviero pitched on two NCAA Division I tournament teams, in 1990 and 1992. As a sophomore in 1991, he posted a 7-1 mark and was named to the New Jersey Baseball all-state squad.

Ioviero has played professionally in the independent Northeast League and the Frontier League. He also participated in the prestigious amateur Cape Cod Summer League and in the Atlantic Collegiate Summer Baseball League.

Ioviero earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Rutgers in 1994, adding a postgraduate degree in physical education and health from Kean University in 1996. He received his master's degree in supervision and administration from Kean in 2002. He currently resides in Woodbridge with his wife Letizia.