Long Island University to add NCAA Gymnastics program
Update: This article was updated with information from a press release announcement that confirmed the new program at noon on March 5.
The newest NCAA women’s gymnastics program is New York’s Long Island University.
The Sharks posted a prospective student-athlete questionnaire on Wednesday, announcing that LIU would “begin to sponsor women’s gymnastics as an NCAA varsity sport beginning in the 2020-21 season.”
LIU confirmed the addition of a gymnastics team on Thursday, March 5, at noon with a press release.
Per the announcement, the Sharks will compete as a member of the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL), which has been an affiliate member of the NCAA since 1996.
The league consists of six Division I universities along the Mid-Atlantic: George Washington University, North Carolina State University, Towson University, University of New Hampshire, University of North Carolina, and University of Pittsburgh. LIU will become the seventh member of the league.
“We are thrilled to be adding women’s gymnastics to our Shark family,” LIU Athletics Director Dr. William E. Martinov Jr. said in the release.
“We are looking forward to hiring an exceptional coaching staff to recruit and train some of the best and brightest new Sharks. Gymnastics is one of the fastest growing women’s sports, and collegiately, women’s gymnastics has the highest graduation rate for any women’s NCAA sport. We look forward to our continued pursuit of excellence both in the classroom and on the field!”
A national search for a head coach will begin immediately.
The LIU Sharks athletic program is relatively “new.” It is the result of a July 2019 unification of LIU’s two New York campuses–the NCAA Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the NCAA Division II LIU Post Pioneers.
The majority of the program’s teams compete in the NCAA Division I Northeast Conference (NEC). Its new eSports team competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
Word of a new women’s program first broke on Feb. 25 when coach Randy Lane appeared on the Half In, Half Out podcast.
Lane said he has been in communication with four schools about adding NCAA teams and the first announcement was impending.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
