New Jersey City University Athletics

 

 

Steven Royster has made a career out of teaching: in the classroom, and on the track. Now in his third year as head coach of the New Jersey City University men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field programs, Royster has continued to build the Gothic Knights into one of the elite Division III track programs in the nation. It is his 18^th year overall as a coach at the University.

 

He also enters his 14^th year as an assistant men’s and women’s cross country coach, after serving as head women’s cross country coach for four years  from 1989-92.

 

After spending 11 years as an assistant and associate head coach with the cross country and track programs, he was promoted to head coach in August 2004.

 

Under his leadership, NJCU’s men’s track program has become one of the fastest growing in Division III since being reinstated for the 2003 season. He was voted the 2006 New Jersey Athletic Conference Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year by his peers, and earned co-NJAC Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year distinction in May 2006.

 

Among the most notable achievements during his tenure came on April 29, 2006 when the men’s outdoor 4x100 relay team set an all-time Division III national record in the event in front of a crowd of 49,771 during the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. NJCU became the first team in Division III history to break 40 seconds in the 4x100. It is regarded as one of the most significant athletic accomplishments in NJCU sports history.

 

Royster has also helped lead the NJCU men to two Eastern College Athletic Conference championships—the first two in school history in the sport of track and field. In May 2005, the Gothic Knights captured the ECAC outdoor championship in a rout, and followed that title with the 2006 ECAC Indoor crown in March 2006. The 2005 indoor program placed second at the ECACs

 

The men’s indoor track program has been featured on national television on CBS Sports twice in 2005 and 2006.

 

Since he became head coach in 2004, the men’s indoor program has amassed two individual national championships, with Anthony Miles winning the 55-meter dash in 2005 and 2006. He has produced 12 All-Americans. Meanwhile, NJCU has generated 36 All-ECAC and 14 All-NJAC performers, 10 ECAC champions, and achieved two ECAC and two NJAC records. Additionally, NJCU has received four ECAC Track Athlete of the Week and five ECAC Field Athlete of the Week honors. In 2006, Ronald Hussey was named the NJAC’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year, and NJCU also earned Outstanding Male Track Athlete honors.

 

The men’s outdoor program has produced 10 All-America, 31 All-ECAC, 8 ECAC champion and seven All-NJAC performers in the last two seasons. Meanwhile, NJCU has set one national and one NJAC record, and received two weekly ECAC honors. Miles received the 2005 ECAC Division III Outstanding Male Athlete award.

 

At the NCAA championships, the indoor team finished fifth in Division III in 2006, become one of six programs in school history to place among the top five at an NCAA event. The 2005 indoor program placed seventh nationally. The men also scored 21^st and 23^rd place outdoor finishes in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

 

While the men’s program has emerged under the leadership, Royster has continued to aid the progression of the women’s track program, which has been a constant power since 2000.

 

The women’s indoor program saw Andrea Herbert win the 2005 national championship in the triple jump. Additionally, there have been four All-America, eight All-ECAC and 10 All-NJAC performers under Royster’s watch. NJCU has had one ECAC champion, one NJAC Outstanding Female Track Athlete, and one ECAC Field Athlete of the Week.

 

During the outdoor season, five-time national champion Diana Lawson captured her final two championships with Royster as head coach in 2005 and was named NCAA Division III Track Athlete of the Meet. In all, Royster has produced six All-America, 17 All-ECAC and 10 All-NJAC winners during his two years as head coach of the women’s outdoor squad. NJCU has also won three ECAC individual outdoor championships and set two NJAC records. Herbert earned NJAC Most Outstanding Female Athlete accolades in 2006­—equivalent to conference Player of the Year. The Knights have received two ECAC Track Athlete of the Week and three ECAC Field Athlete of the Week honors.

 

At the NCAA championships, the indoor team finished 14 and 17^th in 2005 and 2006, while recording 10^th and 28^th place on the outdoor circuit. Royster’s indoor team has finished 10^th and 11^th at the ECAC championships, and had even more success outdoors. The Knights were second at the 2005 ECAC outdoor meet, five shy of claiming the first ECAC women’s title. NJCU placed sixth in 2006.

 

In eight years as associate head coach of the women’s program, and two years with the men, he has helped produce 21 NCAA All-Americans, 70 ECAC All-Conference, 71 NJAC All-Conference award winners, 12 ECAC individual champions, and six NJAC record holders.

 

Among his challenges as head coach, Royster has designed practices and workouts which enhance the abilities and techniques of the athletes in the cross-country and track and field programs.

 

The most visible product of his teaching has been Lawson, who went from an above average high school sprinter to a five-time NCAA Division III indoor and outdoor national champion in the 55, 100, and 200-meter dashes, and an 11-time First-Team All-American. Lawson won the 2001, 2002 and 2004 titles in the indoor 55-meter dash and the 2005 outdoor titles in the 100 and 200 dashes. She twice established the NCAA record in the 55 dash.

 

“Steve Royster is a very strict coach, and he’s very demanding,” said Lawson. “He taught me to get my start down to a tee. When I began college, I had a good start, but he perfected it. Without him my start wouldn’t have been what it was, and my start was the key to me winning most of the races I had in my career. I thank him for that. And as demanding as he was as a coach, he always had a lot of jokes that kept me laughing throughout my career. Combined, that’s what made our relationship good.”

 

Royster has coached track and field and cross-country locally since 1976. He has served on the staffs of the Heart & Soul Track Club and the Jersey City Track Club. At Jersey City’s Lincoln High School, he coached city, Hudson County, and state champions as head and assistant track and field coach of the Lions. He has also taken teams to the Penn Relays.

 

A 1972 graduate of Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio with a bachelor of science in Education, he was a four-time letter-winner in wrestling at the NAIA-II school.

 

Royster is currently a history teacher at Jersey City’s Academic High School. He has taught for the Jersey City Board of Education for 31 years.

 

Born in Washington, D.C., Royster currently resides in Maplewood, NJ with his wife, Maxine. The couple has three children.