Andrew Schwartz, named Senior Associate Director of Athletics at NJIT in the winter of 2014-15, brought a wealth of experience with him to the new position, enabling him to make a swift impact at a time of major steps forward for Highlander Athletics.
As the first person to hold his new post of Senior Associate Director of Athletics at NJIT, Schwartz has a myriad of responsibilities, both internally and externally.
He has direct oversight of the growing program’s business and facilities operations and he also works closely with Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan in formulating and implementing department policy.
Having begun his career in athletics administration with a highly successful 15-year stint from 1994 through 2009 at Wagner College in Staten Island, NY, Schwartz moved to the vendor side of the sports facilities industry, working at SportCare of Bridgewater, NJ, and then Tarkett Sports and FieldTurf USA, Inc., of Montreal, Quebec, until he accepted his post at NJIT.
An aide to longtime Director of Athletics Walt Hameline, Schwartz advanced through the ranks to be named Wagner’s Senior Associate Athletics Director in 2001.
Throughout his time on Staten Island, Schwartz pursued a strong commitment to the growth of the Seahawks program, implementing numerous improvements that enhanced the student-athlete experience and elevated the public image of Wagner’s program.
At Wagner, Schwartz was the sport administrator for 14 varsity and club sports and carried out a successful expansion of women’s sports offerings to include varsity teams in golf (he served as head coach); swimming and diving ; lacrosse; and, water polo (he served a two-year term on the NCAA Division I Women’s Water Polo Committee).
On the men’s side, he oversaw the conversion of the club lacrosse team to a Division I varsity squad.
His time with the Seahawks also saw extensive facilities improvements.
Outdoors, Wagner expanded its softball field and developed football and soccer practice fields. In the same time frame, the football stadium field was converted from a grass surface and wooden bleachers structure into a 3,500-seat stadium with synthetic surface, permanent seating, a press box and surrounding track. Indoors, Wagner developed the Spiro Sports Center, which was completed in 1999.
Given the timing needed to bring new facilities on line, some Wagner teams were displaced for seasons at a time during construction periods and Schwartz guided the seamless operation of those displaced teams in their temporary practice and competition sites.
That experience will serve him well as NJIT builds its new Wellness and Events Center, scheduled for opening in 2017. The new $100 million building will rise on the current site of Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium, so outdoor NJIT sports men’s soccer, women’s soccer and men’s lacrosse will temporarily move off campus following the 2015 soccer season. A new on-campus stadium is planned to coincide with the opening of the Wellness and Events Center.
Internally at Wagner, Schwartz supervised operations that included: sports information; facility and event management; and the marketing/partner program, as well as reviving the Seahawk Club, the development arm of Wagner Intercollegiate Athletics.
Heading a marketing program that did not exist until the early 2000s, Schwartz drove an effort that raised annual marketing support in excess of six figures and grew season ticket sales for football and basketball by 30 percent.
His experience in that area played to NJIT’s benefit almost immediately after he took on his new post, when he managed the University’s successful role as host of three games in the national men’s basketball tournament the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) in March 2015. With Schwartz leading the operational and marketing effort, NJIT's CIT games were played in front of three progressively larger standing room only crowds in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
In his first full semester on his job at NJIT, Schwartz was a key player in securing NJIT's first department-wide apparel deal. Beginning on July 1, 2015, NJIT and adidas entered into a seven-year agreement that makes the Portland, OR-based company the official athletic footwear, apparel, and accessory brand of the NJIT Highlanders.
While at Wagner, Schwartz served on numerous external committees including Northeast Conference Tournament Director, NCAA Certification Committee (twice) and site representative for the National Invitation Tournament. In service to the MIBA Committee that operated the NIT, Schwartz was a representative for the preseason and postseason NIT at over 20 different collegiate sites.
He departed Wagner in 2009, moving on to SportCare, where he successfully launched and grew a niche market tri-state synthetic field maintenance company, serving as Vice President for Business Development. Focused on customer engagement, he helped grow sales in excess of $1 million over a 24-month period.
From there, he was recruited by FieldTurf USA, a Tarkett Sports Company, serving as Vice President for Client Services for an industry-leading synthetic turf manufacturer. Having joined the company in January 2012, he was appointed Vice President for Strategic Initiatives in September 2014, focusing on FieldTurf’s sales effort toward the field replacement market.
Andrew Schwartz earned his Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York College at Cortland and his M.Ed. in Sport Administration from Temple University, as well as an MBA in Marketing from Wagner College.
He resides in Verona, NJ, and is married to Kelly Burke Schwartz. They have two young children, son Matthew and daughter Lara.
(last edit Sept. 2015)
