In just four seasons as head coach, Kim Bowen Lusk has led New Jersey Institute of Technology women's basketball to unprecedented success.
Now, she will lead the program into NCAA Division I competition, starting with the 2006-07 season,
Lusk's third season (2004-05) saw the Highlanders post a program-best 18 wins and earn NJIT women's basketball its first postseason berth beyond its own conference tournament (2005 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Championship Tournament).
In 2005-06, the program's last season at the Division II level, she piloted the Highlanders to a 17-10 mark for their second-highest wins total in 19 seasons of women's basketball. In addition, the Highlanders tied for 20th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 60 points per game. They held 13 opponents under 60 points, including six under 50 and two under 40. The 2005-06 team also ranked 49th nationally in Division II, with 11.2 steals per game.
With a combined three-year record of 63-50, Lusk is the winningest career coach in the young program's history by a wide margin. NJIT began women's basketball at the Division III level in 1986-87 and moved up to Division II in 1997-98. Now, the Highlanders are reclassifying to NCAA Division I.
In her first season (2002-03), during which her title was Interim Head Coach, she guided NJIT to a 16-12 record, tying the existing school record for victories in a season. Along the way, those Highlanders advanced to the semifinals of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament.
The "interim" tag was removed from her coaching title in April 2003 and she was promoted to Assistant Director of Athletics at the same time.
In Lusk's second season, the injury-embattled 2003-04 Highlanders dipped to 12-16, but they bounced back for the success of 2004-05, winning a record 18 games and advancing to play in the ECAC Tournament after splitting two games in the CACC conference tournament.
Lusk was named interim head coach in September 2002 after one season as first assistant coach under Sharon Manning Beverly, who headed NJIT's women's basketball program from 1999-2000 to 2001-02. Prior to NJIT, Lusk spent two years as a graduate assistant at the University of New Haven.
Lusk was a four-year swing player and two-year captain at Southern Connecticut State University, graduating in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. She holds the Owls' school record for assists in a game, dishing out 15 against Albertus Magnus College during her junior season.
A native of Valhalla, New York, Lusk earned a master's of business administration with a concentration in sports management from New Haven in 2001.
She resides in Dobbs Ferry, New York with her husband, Jim, and daughters, Madison and Kallie. Madison was born on March 11, 2005, the date of NJIT's first ECAC postseason game, and Kallie was born on April 24, 2006.
