New Jersey Institute of Technology Athletics

Named to lead the NJIT women’s basketball program in July of 2012, Steve Lanpher led the team to its first conference championship when the Highlanders captured the Great West Conference Tournament title on March 16, 2013 in Chicago.
 
In guiding his first Highlander team in 2012-13, Lanpher got NJIT to peak at precisely the right time, as the squad won its last 5 games and 8 of the last 9. Included in the closing burst were wins in the GWC Tournament over Texas-Pan American in the semifinals and then over regular season champ Utah Valley in the title game.
 
A common thread in the two tournament wins—defense, as the Highlanders scored exactly 52 points in each contest, but held UTPA and UVU to 42 points apiece. With senior Rayven Johnson, the tournament MVP, scoring 20 points and pulling down an NJIT DI-record 18 rebounds, the Highlanders held Utah Valley, an explosive team, to 10-for-50 shooting from the field. GWC Player of the Year Sammie Jensen of UVU managed just 2 points on 2-for-13 shooting.
 
Winning with defense was a goal of Lanpher’s and in his team’s 16 wins just one opponent topped 64 points (Texas-Pan American scored 75 in an overtime loss to NJIT).
 
The GWC title was the first at any level for NJIT women’s basketball, which began Division III competition in 1986-87 and experienced a measure of success, but no championships, in the latter years of its Division II era, which ended in 2005-06.
 
In Lanpher’s second season, with the go-to player Rayven Johnson having taken her game to pro ball in Germany, the Highlanders faced a rebuilding season and sustained eight losses by 7 points or less. Still, they won three in a row beginning February 17 before falling in the finale at Hofstra.

The 2014-15 Highlanders won last four of six contests and sustained four losses by 5 or less points, including two overtime contests, combining for a 12-17 overall mark, four wins up from the 2013-14 season.  NJIT defeated Conference USA host Florida Atlantic in the opening game of the Florida Atlantic Thanksgiving Tournament.
 
When he took over at NJIT, the personable Lanpher already was a veteran of nearly 20 years coaching girls and women's basketball, having most recently been the women's basketball associate head coach at the University of Massachusetts when he got the call to lead the Highlander program.
 
Lanpher (pronounced Lan-FEER), who has been a head coach at the high school, junior college and at the four-year college level in NCAA Division III, has seven years experience as either an assistant coach or associate head coach at the NCAA Division I level.
 
In 2006, he became an assistant coach at the University of Vermont, beginning a six-year association with head coach Sharon Dawley, who promoted him to associate head coach for his last two years at Vermont and hired him as associate head coach at UMass, when she was named head coach there in 2010.
 
Vermont's combined record in Lanpher's four years on the staff there was 91-40. In his second year with the Catamounts, they finished 24-9 and advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament in postseason. The next two years, they were America East Conference champions, reaching the NCAA Division I Tournament in both 2009 and 2010. The 2009 team finished 21-12 and the 2010 team was 27-7, including a win in the first round of the NCAAs.

At UMass, Lanpher assisted Coach Dawley in the first two years of work toward building a championship-quality program in the rugged Atlantic 10 Conference.
 
“Steve is a great guy and I'm going to miss him and his family,” said Dawley, the UMass head coach of her former top assistant. “I'm thrilled that he's getting this opportunity to take over his own program. He's passionate about basketball and developing great relationships with the student-athletes. He's passionate about them excelling in the classroom, as well as on the basketball court.”

A 1987 graduate of College of St. Joseph in Rutland, VT, with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree three years later, Lanpher began his coaching career with a three-year stint as head girls basketball coach at West Rutland High School. He returned to the College of St. Joseph as women's basketball coach in 1993-94, before serving in the United States Army as a Ranger in the First Ranger Battalion in Savannah, GA.
 
Returning to civilian life, he was the head coach of a startup women's junior college program at Dean College in Massachusetts, where he was Region XXI Coach of the Year in 1998. From Dean, he moved to Pratt Community College in Kansas, where he led the team to 18 wins in his second year, a 10-win improvement over the first year.
 
Entering the Division I college ranks for the first time in 2001 as an assistant coach at Lamar University in Texas, he spent a year there before returning to Vermont as head coach at Division III Norwich University, where his four-year mark was 93-28. The records in the last two of his four years at Norwich were 25-4 in 2004-05 and 25-5 in 2005-06. At Norwich, he was a finalist for New England Coach of the Year and was conference co-Coach of the Year, with his team leading the nation in scoring defense one year and advancing to the second round of the Division III national tournament.
 
In naming Lanpher to lead the fortunes of NJIT women's basketball, Lenny Kaplan, the Director of Athletics, cited the coach's background. “We were looking for someone who had been a part of multiple successful programs,” said Kaplan. “Steve's head coaching experience, particularly at Norwich, combined with his work at Vermont and UMass helped make him a great fit for us. We look forward to his guiding our program toward new levels of success in Division I.”
 
Said Lanpher, the new coach of the Highlanders: “I am both humbled and honored to be selected as the next women's basketball coach at NJIT.  I would like to thank President (Dr. Joel) Bloom, (Vice President) Dr. (Jack) Gentul, the entire search committee, and especially Lenny Kaplan for the faith and trust they have shown me.  I am extremely excited about leading the women's basketball program to greater heights, both on and off the floor.  I will work tirelessly to make our program one of honor, pride and respect and a source of pride for the entire NJIT community."

*Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Champion
**Great West Conference Tournament Champions