Joining the NJIT cross country and track and field coaching staffs for the 2006-07 season is King Perry, a former outstanding track athlete, who previously coached at four different New Jersey high schools.
A resident of Passaic, NJ, Perry was a star hurdler in high school (Passaic Tech) and college (Long Island University-Brooklyn).
He was an Olympic Trials qualifier in 2000 and ranked 14th in the United States among high school hurdlers.
He owns the fourth-best 400-meter hurdles time for Passaic County in the decade of the 1990s and the sixth-best time at 110-meter high hurdles for the county in the decade. In field events, he owns the decade's second-best long jump, fourth-best triple jump and eighth-best high jump.
In college, he is the Northeast Conference record holder for the indoor 55-meter high hurdles (7.47) and he was NEC champ in both the 55 and 110-meter high hurdles.
He has served as coach at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, NJ, as well as at Bishop Francis Essex Catholic High in East Orange, at Hawthorne HS and at Passaic High. He has coached five individual champions, most recently the state Group IV outdoor long jump champion and the top two boys 55-meter Passaic County finishers in 2006. He has also coached football at the high school and middle schools levels.
