Cesar Markovic, who, since 2003, has led programs at two schools into the NCAA Division I College Cup, is the new head men’s soccer coach at NJIT, Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan announced today.
Markovic, whose 15-year career record at three colleges is 151-125-34, has reached the Division I tournament three times, beginning in 2003, when he led Saint Peter’s to its first-ever NCAA bid in soccer. Moving on to Stony Brook in 2004, he led the Seawolves to their first-ever NCAA men’s soccer bid in 2005 and returned to the College Cup field in 2009.
He completed his seven seasons at Stony Brook in 2010, posting a 10-7-3 overall record in his final campaign.
In announcing that Markovic will lead the Highlanders, Kaplan said: “We are ecstatic that Cesar is joining the NJIT athletics family. It says great things about NJIT as an institution and about the potential of Highlander soccer for us to attract a coach with his great track record. He is the ideal person to lead us to new success as a Division I program, while restoring a rich soccer tradition that goes back to before 1960, when Newark College of Engineering (NJIT’s institutional name at the time) won the NAIA National Championship.”
Markovic is ready for the latest challenge in a career of building championship teams. “I am extremely excited about this opportunity", he said. “From the start of this process, NJIT has shown a strong commitment to taking this soccer program to the next level in Division I.
“While I am very happy to be here, I also feel a responsibility to create a tremendous soccer environment on campus and a culture of winning and exciting soccer at NJIT. I would like to thank AD Lenny Kaplan, President Robert Altenkirch, Vice President Dr. Joel Bloom and all of the Athletic Administration for bringing my family and me to this wonderful campus. I am honored to be the NJIT men's soccer coach and look forward to great times ahead."
His Saint Peter’s team in 2003 and his Stony Brook team in 2005 each won their first round NCAA games. Unranked Saint Peter’s defeated Brown, ranked 11th in the nation, and that win remains the only NCAA Tournament win for Saint Peter’s in any sport. The 2005 Stony Brook team won its first round NCAA game against Yale for the Seawolves’ first NCAA win in any sport.
He began his NCAA coaching career in 1995 at Division III Hunter, where he had been a star player. In five years as coach at the New York City school, he won the conference title every year and led the Hawks to the NCAA Division III Regional semifinals in 1999.
Moving to Division I in 2000 at Saint Peter’s, he took over a program that had gone 10 seasons without a winning record and in his fourth year (2003) led the team to a school-record 18 wins, the program’s first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and the NCAA bid.
Taking over a Stony Brook program that had finished last in the America East Conference the year before he was hired, he led the Long Island-based Seawolves to a school-record 13 wins and their first NCAA bid in his second season (2005).
With NJIT, he succeeds Pedro Lopes, who coached eight seasons at NJIT, finishing with a 4-13-1 record in 2010. Lopes led the Highlanders’ transition to Division I from Division II, heading the final season Division II competition in 2003 and then all seven seasons of Division I competition to date.
Markovic's tenure at Stony Brook included three of the five 10-win seasons in school history. His record with the Seawolves was 58-59-22 overall and 24-20-10 in America East regular season play.
Before Stony Brook, Markovic took over at Saint Peter’s, where the program that had gone 14 years without a 10-win season and had gone 10 seasons without a winning record. His first two years with the Peacocks resulted in a combined mark of 7-29-1. But the next two saw a near-reversal to 28-11-3.
In his third season (2002), Saint Peter’s was 10-6-3 and that proved to merely be the beginning, as 2003 brought the MAAC championship, a school-record 18 wins and the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid in soccer.
Markovic, who had a playing career that would earn him a spot in the Hunter College Hall of Fame, directed his alma mater’s team from 1995 to 1999. In five seasons, his teams captured the conference championship every year. They won five regular season City University of New York regular season crowns and three CUNY postseason titles. In 1999, his final year at Hunter, the Hawks reached the NCAA Division III regional semifinals.
He brings four conference Coach of the Year awards with him to NJIT, having been CUNYAC Coach of the Year twice and Skyline Conference Coach of the Year once with Hunter and MAAC Coach of the Year in 2003 with Saint Peter’s. He was BigAppleSoccer.com Coach of the Year for 2005 with Stony Brook.
A native of Queens, NY, Markovic earned his bachelor’s degree from Hunter and his master’s degree from Hofstra University. He lives with his wife, Tijana, and their two young children, son Nikola (2 1/2), and daughter Viktorija (7 months), and he has two sons, Danilo (15) and Alessandro (12).
He has extensive club coaching experience and also coached Queensborough Community College in New York, as well as St. John’s Prep, which he led to Catholic High Schools City and Sectional titles in 1993.
Markovic holds a USSF A License, the highest granted in USA Soccer, an NSCAA Premier License, and he was among the first American coaches granted a Brazilian Professional Coaching license after serving as an apprentice/assistant with the famed Sao Paulo FC. He also served as an assistant coach stateside with the professional Long Island Rough Riders in 1997 and 1998.
He has coached numerous all-region and all-conference players at the Division I level and nine of his former players have gone on to sign professional contracts.
He will aim to revive a rich Highlanders soccer tradition that existed for decades in the small college ranks, when the program was a regional power and rose up to national prominence, capped by winning the 1960 NAIA National Championship.
