Ira Miller

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Team:men & women

Ira Miller, one of the most successful college tennis coaches in the East, has joined NJIT in July 2014, where he will guide the school's already-successful men's and women's teams.

Miller, a nine-time Northeast Conference Coach of the Year and a member of the athletics Hall of Fame at two different New Jersey colleges, will lead the two Highlander programs that have known uninterrupted success dating back to when NJIT competed in NCAA Division II through to the move to the Division I level, which the Highlanders entered in 2006-07.

Miller, a cum laude graduate (BA) of Clark University in Worcester, MA, and The American Film Institute (MFA) in Los Angeles, Miller played four years on the varsity at Clark and was a team captain as a senior

He has coached at three different institutions—Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ; Drew University in Madison, NJ; and Yeshiva University in New York City. He won multiple conference championshisp at FDU and Drew and in his only season at Yeshiva (Spring 2014) he led the program to a conference championship and an NCAA Division III National Tournament berth, becoming the first Yeshiva team in any sport to qualify for NCAA postseason play.

"We are pleased that a coach with Ira's experience and success was interested in our position," said Kaplan in announcing the move. "His track record of graduating high-achieving, smart tennis players was something that put his resume at the top of our list."

Miller began his college coaching in 1985 at Fairleigh Dickinson and he guided programs there in three separate stints (1985-88, 1994-98, and 2005-12). He coached Drew from 1998 through 2005 and was men's tennis coach at Yeshiva University this year.

At FDU, he directed NEC men's titles in 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008, and 2012 and women's NEC titles in 1987 and 2012.

He was selected as NEC Coach of the Year in men's tennis seven times and was NEC women's Coach of the Year three times.

In 2012, Miller was voted as ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Northeast Region Coach of the Year for women's tennis.

He led FDU teams into the NCAA Division I tournament three times with the men (2007, 2008, and 2012) and the steered the Knight women into the 2012 NCAAs. His 1996 FDU team was Eastern College Athletic Conference South champion,

In Miller's seven-year tenure at NCAA Division III Drew, he led teams to seven Freedom Conference championships, winning five in a row with the men (2001 to 2005) and one with the women in 2003.

He was inducted into the Fairleigh Dickinson Hall of Fame in 2004 and into the Drew Hall of Fame in 2011 as coach of the school's 2001 championship team.

Coupled with the stream of success in competition, his teams have excelled as students, earning a total of 33 team academic awards from the ITA, which is the governing body of college tennis. His players have earned 93 ITA Scholar-Athlete awards as individuals.

His most recent women's team at Fairleigh Dickinson posted the highest team GPA (3.7) in the Knights' program for 2012. Both teams were honored by the NEC in 2010 and 2012 for the highest team GPA in their respective sports among conference teams.

His coaching extends outside the college ranks, as he is director of the adidas tennis camp in Mahwah, NJ and was adidas Caribbean director from 2010 to 2012.