Newark Athletics

New Brunswick Athletics

Brian Wischusen is going from an assistant coaching position at one New Jersey Athletic Conference school to the head job at its sister school.

Wischusen was hired in April as the men's basketball head coach at Rutgers University-Camden after serving as an assistant men's basketball coach with a pair of collegiate programs. He comes to the Scarlet Raptors after coaching against them as part of the Rutgers-Newark staff.

"It's exciting to have the opportunity to run my own program," Wischusen said. "To be the final decision-maker on the basketball end of things is pretty fun.

"I've coached with, and for, a lot of good people. I've learned a lot. I've always been a vocal assistant coach. Every coach I have worked for has encouraged me to keep pursuing my head coaching dream. I look forward to helping the next generation of coaches come along and try to get to the level of coaching they want."

Wischusen served as an assistant coach at Rutgers-Newark during both the 2003-04 and the 2005-06 seasons. Between those two stints, he was an assistant at a Division II program, the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He was active in recruiting with Rutgers-Newark, and already has hit the ground running at Rutgers-Camden.

"There definitely are enough players in South Jersey that kind of go untapped," Wischusen said. "It's an untapped market. Some players make all-conference and don't get recruited. I'll use the style of recruiting we incorporated in the north. I'll meet players and become familiar with their families. We'll do a lot of targeting of whole programs and make sure that they know who I am."

Wischusen takes over the program from Bill Culbertson, who served three years as the Scarlet Raptors head coach before resigning at the end of the season. The Scarlet Raptors were 1-23 this past season and 8-65 in his three-year stint, including 2-44 in the NJAC.

"We're excited to have Brian on board," said Rutgers-Camden Director of Athletics Jeff Dean. "He brings a lot of enthusiasm. Coming from Rutgers-Newark, he's familiar with the Rutgers environment. We're excited about a new era in Rutgers-Camden basketball."

A 1997 Boston College graduate with a major in Sociology and a minor in Black Studies, Wischusen received his Masters of Social Work from BC in 1998. He is employed as a Social Worker.

Wischusen started his coaching career as the head JV and assistant varsity boys' basketball coach at Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, where he spent two seasons from September 1998 through May 2000. He spent the next two seasons (June 2000 to August 2002) as the assistant varsity boys' basketball coach at Marist High School in Bayonne, then served in the same capacity at Hillside High School for the 2002-03 season.

In June of 2003 he joined the collegiate ranks as an assistant at Rutgers-Newark. The next year he worked in a similar capacity at UMass Lowell before returning to Rutgers-Newark. Last season with the Scarlet Raiders he served in numerous capacities, from scouting to developing winning practice and game strategies, and from recruiting to assisting with the academic program and monitoring the academic progress of specific players. He also started work on the first Rutgers-Newark High School Team Tournament, which begins this summer. With his two stints at Rutgers-Newark, Wischusen is very familiar with the competitive nature of NJAC competition.

"In this league, you're coaching against some of the best Division III coaches in the country," he said.

You're also recruiting against some of the best Division III programs in the country, which is why Wischusen has jumped into his new job full-blast.

"It's about relationship-building," Wischusen said. "That's the most important part. It's about working day in and day out."