The Iona Gaels are the

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

teams of Iona University, in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

. They compete in the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and ...

(MAAC) and participate in 21

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

programs.

Varsity athletic programs

Men's basketball

Iona University has been competing in men's basketball since the inception of the school in 1940. Iona is an original member of the

, which began play in men's basketball with the 1981–82 season. The Gaels have compiled the most victories of any MAAC team since the founding of the conference and have won a league record seven MAAC titles. During their history, the Gaels have participated in 15 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships compiling a record of 1–15. The lone win for the Gaels came in 1980 against Holy Cross, 84–78, which was later vacated due to NCAA violations. The Gaels were the

2011 CollegeInsider.com Tournament The 2011 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was a postseason single-elimination tournament of 24 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I (NCAA), Division I teams. The CIT began with 12 first-round games. Four of the ...

runners up. Victories against ranked opponents: * February 21, 1980: Iona 77, Louisville 60 ( Madison Square Garden) * December 27, 2002: Iona 65,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

56 ( Madison Square Garden) * November 26, 2005: Iona 89, Iowa State 72 ( Ames, Iowa) *November 25, 2021: Iona 72,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

68 (

Lake Buena Vista, Florida Lake Buena Vista () is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is mostly known for being the mailing address for Walt Disney World—although almost all of the resort facilities, including all four theme parks, are physically located ...

) Notable Men's Basketball Coaches at Iona: * Jim McDermott * Jim Valvano *

Pat Kennedy Joseph Patrick Kennedy (born January 5, 1952) is an American former college basketball coach and player. He was previously the men's basketball coach at Towson University, Iona College, Florida State University, DePaul University, Pace Univers ...

Tim Welsh Tim Welsh (born October 4, 1960) is an American college basketball coach and the former head basketball coach at Providence College. Previously, he served as the head coach at Iona College. He also served briefly as head men's basketball coach ...

* Jeff Ruland *

Kevin Willard Kevin Schreiber Willard (born April 6, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at the University of Maryland. Willard played basketball at Western Kentucky during the 1992–93 season (his freshm ...

Tim Cluess Timothy Michael Cluess (born March 9, 1959) is an American college basketball coach who most recently was the head men's basketball coach at Iona College. He is also a former head coach of Long Island University–C.W. Post. College playing ca ...

* Rick Pitino On April 9, 2010,

was named the 12th head coach in the history of Iona men's basketball. Cluess is a graduate of Hofstra University and formerly the head coach of the C.W. Post men's basketball team. He has won 20 games and a postseason berth in each of his first eight seasons as the head coach of Iona, the only coach in the history of the program to accomplish the feat.Iona Men's Basketball Game Notes, December 10, 2014 http://icgaels.com/fls/14900/stats/mbasketball/2014-15/gamenotes/14-12-10-Rider.pdf As of January 30, 2019, Cluess is No. 2 on Iona's all-time wins list. Gaels who have played in the NBA: *

Richie Guerin Richard Vincent Guerin (born May 29, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St. Louis/Atlan ...

* Jeff Ruland *

Steve Burtt, Sr. Steven Dwayne Burtt (born November 5, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player. The 6'2" point guard played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) sporadically from 1984 until 1993. He also had an established playing career ...

* Sean Green *

Scott Machado Michael Scott Machado (born June 8, 1990) is an American-Brazilian professional basketball player for Avtodor Saratov of the VTB United League. He played college basketball for Iona College and represents the Brazilian national basketball team. ...

Steve Burtt Sr. Steven Dwayne Burtt (born November 5, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player. The 6'2" point guard played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) sporadically from 1984 until 1993. He also had an established playing career ...

is Iona's all-time leading scorer with 2,534 career points.

Women's basketball

The Gaels have been competing in NCAA women's basketball since the 1974–75 season. They are a founding member of the MAAC and are coached by

Billi Godsey ''Billi'' is a 2000 Pakistani Urdu horror film directed by Syed Noor starring Meera, Noor and Saima. This horror film is supposedly based on a true story about a victim turning into a scum-busting avenger. Plot The film opens with a scene w ...

, a graduate of

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New ...

. Godsey was named head coach for the 2013–14 season. In her first season, the Gaels earned their first ever MAAC Regular Season Championship. The program has five postseason appearances, the 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2014 Women's National Invitation Tournaments, and an appearance in the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament in 2016. They hold a 2–5 record in postseason play.

Cross country, track and field

Iona men's cross country is one of the top programs in

having earned 15 top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championship in the past 19 years from 2002–present. The Gaels finished as the runner up at consecutive championships in 2007 and 2008. The program finished third overall in 2006, and fourth overall in 2003 and 2005. The Gaels have finished in the top three at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship in 23 of the last 25 years dating back to 1997, including titles in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012. The program has also captured 30 straight

titles, the longest active streak in NCAA. Leonard Korir became the Gaels' first NCAA Championship winner when he won the 2011 NCAA Indoor 5000m title. Later that year he won the NCAA Outdoor 10000m championship. The women's cross country program also claimed their first NCAA Northeast Regional Title in the 2014 season, qualifying for their second NCAA National Appearance, the first being in 2006. Iona earned its first individual Cross Country title in 2014 when Kate Avery won the NCAA National title, becoming only the second National Champion in Iona history and the first Female student-athlete from Iona to claim an NCAA title. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, the program gained its first Olympians. The Gaels had three representatives in Track and Field. Leonard Korir competed in the 10,000m for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

where he finished 14th in a time of 27:35.65. The Women's program had two alumni compete at the games. Maya Rehberg represented Germany in the 3000m Steeplechase where she finished 15th in the third heat. Her time of 9:51.73 ranked Rehberg 44th overall. Anna Baumeister competed for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

in the Women's Marathon. Baumeister finished in a time of 2:29.49 which earned her 55th place. Joseph Pienta is the current head coach of both the men's and women's cross country and track and field programs. Pienta took over the head coaching position in 2018 after being an assistant coach for just under a decade. Ricardo Santos is the previous head coach of both the men's and women's programs. Santos is a graduate of Iona and received All-American Honors for cross-country in 1998 whilst representing the Gaels. Santos had been head coach of the cross country and track and field programs since 2008 before leaving the Gaels to coach the performance team at BAA (Boston Athletic Association). Santos is now on the coaching staff for men's cross country and track and field for the Stanford Cardinals. Iona hosts their Meet of Champions cross country invitational annually at the start of each cross country season. Their home course is the cross country trails at Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx, New York. Hynes

Discontinued sports

Football

Iona's football program ran from 1965 to 2008. The program was ended in part due to the dissolution of the MAAC Football League in 2007.

Ice Hockey

The Iona Gaels Ice Hockey program began as an

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

program in 1967 under coach Harry Nixon, under whom they enjoyed their first season unbeaten. Playing as an Independent program since the program's conception, the Gaels joined the Division III tier of the ECAC Ice Hockey Conference in 1977, before the MAAC introduced Ice Hockey as a sport within the conference in 1998. Their best finish in the MAAC tournament came in the 2000 season, where they placed second. The program ran until the end of the 2002–03 NCAA Ice Hockey season, after the Board of Trustees decided to remove the program from the Gaels' varsity sports teams.

Facilities

Glen Island Park Glen Island Park is a waterfront park, located on Glen Island, on the Long Island Sound, New York. The park is owned and operated by Westchester County and shares the island with a privately operated but county-owned entertainment facility, the G ...

: Men's and Women's Rowing * Hynes Athletics Center: Men's and Women's Basketball, Swimming and Diving, and Water Polo, as well as Women's Volleyball *

Mazzella Field Mazzella Field is a 2,400 seat soccer-specific stadium on the campus of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. It is home to the Iona College Gaels soccer, rugby, and lacrosse teams, as well as the Women's New York Magic of United Women's Socc ...

: Men's and Women's Soccer, Women's Lacrosse, and Men's Rugby * Rice Oval: Men's and Women's Softball * City Park: Men's and Women's Baseball * Van Cortlandt Park Men's and Women's Cross Country

Rivalries

Iona's rivals include the following: * Syracuse University * Manhattan College *

Monmouth University Monmouth University is a private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its charter. There are about 4,400 full ...

Fordham University Fordham University () is a private Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its original campus is located, Fordham is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit un ...

* Siena College * Marist College

References

External links

* {{Coord, 40.92583, -73.7875, display=title Sports teams in the New York metropolitan area Rugby union teams in New York (state)