Former Highlander setter Trevino named assistant coach at NJIT

One of the best men’s volleyball setters in NJIT history will return to the team as an assistant coach.

The NJIT athletics department announced Wednesday that it hired Pedro Trevino to join the Highlanders’ coaching staff for the upcoming season.

Trevino, a four-year starting setter from 1997-2000, finished his final two season with NJIT in the nation’s top 10 in assists per game average and was selected to the All-EIVA team.

NJIT had a winning record in each of Trevino’s four years with the team. As a junior, Trevino also helped lead the Highlanders to a program-best 24-5 record to the EIVA championship against Penn State — the only time NJIT has ever reached the conference title match.

“Pedro will be a great asset to the program,” NJIT head coach Ryan McNeil said in a statement released Wednesday. “Over the past few year boys volleyball has been on the rise in New Jersey and having him on board will increase NJIT’s chance of keeping the up-and-coming local talent in-state.”

Prior to returning to NJIT, Trevino was an assistant coach for the Kean University men’s volleyball team — a Division III team in New Jersey.

NJIT will play the 2012 season in the realigned EIVA, which lost three of its 11 teams in May to newly-formed Division III conferences. The new conference format eliminates the EIVA’s two divisions and the top four teams at the end of the regular season will compete in the conference tournament.

NJIT has finished with a losing record the last five seasons, including ending the 2011 season 7-21 and in last place in the EIVA Hay Division.