Newark product Pedro Lopes became NJIT’s ninth men's soccer head coach in July 2003, having previously spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Rutgers.
Assisting longtime head coach Bob Reasso, Lopes was involved in every aspect of leading Rutgers’ national-level program. At NJIT, he has tapped that experience in building the Highlanders.
Under Lopes’ leadership, the Highlander program evolved to compete at the top level of the college game. Indeed, the 2005 Highlanders took on eventual NCAA Division I national champion Maryland just two years after competing in Division II during Lopes’ first season at the helm.
The Highlanders achieved the greatest victory in the Division I era (began in 2004), stunning San Diego State, 2-0, on September 7, 2007 in San Diego. The Aztecs came in ranked in the top 25 of two national polls and had finished second in the Pac 10 the season before.
NJIT notched another landmark in 2008, a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Rutgers to secure the program’s first-ever win over a Big East opponent in the Division I era.
Under his steady hand, the growth of the Highlanders was apparent in 2005, as the team earned much-improved results, setting a school record with five ties, including one against Stony Brook, which would go on to win a game in the NCAA Division I College Cup championship field.
In 2006, the Highlanders again improved their season wins total from the previous year. On top of that, NJIT remained in contention for the postseason Atlantic Soccer Conference tournament heading into the final weekend.
Building on the national-level win over San Diego State, NJIT qualified for conference postseason play at the Division I level for the first time in 2007, playing in the Atlantic Soccer Conference tournament semifinal.
In 2008, the Highlanders had the come-from-behind win over Rutgers and finished with a new school Division I high for wins, including their first-ever ASC postseason tournament win.
The 2009 season, saw one-win increase from the year before, thus setting another school high for the Division I level. And again, the Highlanders won a game in the ASC tournament.
Lopes began coaching as a volunteer assistant at Rutgers in 1995, and then spent one season with Centenary (NJ) College before returning to the Scarlet Knights as a full-time assistant coach. He is also the Coaching Director for the Jersey Knights Soccer Club.
An integral part of championship teams his whole life as a player, Lopes was an All-American at Rutgers in both 1993 and 1994 and a two-time recipient of the Bob McNulty Award as team Most Valuable Player. He played in four NCAA Tournaments, including two Final Four appearances, with a national runner-up finish in 1990.
He was Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year in 1994, when Rutgers advanced to the Final Four for the third time in five seasons. In all four of his seasons, the Scarlet Knights won the A-10 championship. He scored the game-winning goal in the 1993 Atlantic 10 Championship game and started all 86 games in his collegiate career. Not surprisingly, he was inducted into the Rutgers Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004.
Lopes was a member of the United States U-23 National Team in 1993 and 1994 and he later played professionally with the NJ Imperials. Before college, Lopes was a high school All-American and New Jersey Player of the Year at perennial national power St. Benedict's Prep in Newark.
Pedro and his wife, Heather, were married in June 2006 and they reside in North Brunswick, NJ, with their daughter, Estela Sofia McCloskey Lopes, who was born in October 2007. Their son, Gabriel Jorge McCloskey Lopes, was born in February 2010.
