Merrimack College Athletics

Jeremy Gibson is serving in his eleventh year as the Director of Athletics at Merrimack College in 2023-24 and leads Merrimack into its initial year of full Division I eligibility following a successful 4-year reclassification process. 

Gibson, a member of the College’s Executive Leadership Group, is charged with leading and overseeing Merrimack’s athletic programs, employees, and operations. Gibson oversees Merrimack's 28-sport, NCAA Division I athletic department that competes in the highly-competitive Northeast Conference (NEC) and Hockey East Association, as well as the College's club sport and recreation programs. 

Merrimack has enjoyed unprecedented success for a reclassifying institution with 3 NEC regular season championships in men’s basketball (2) and men’s soccer and a tournament championship for men’s basketball in 2023. Merrimack’s programs collectively rose to the top of the NEC earning their first Commissioner’s Cup championship for men in the 2022-23 season and finishing fourth for the women in the same year. During this period, new standards for attendance were set for football, basketball and hockey with each sport ranking at the top of the nation for per capita attendance.

Merrimack’s elevation to Division I followed an era of remarkable success at the Division II level where the programs combined to qualify for 23 NCAA Championships --  highlighted by a school-record seven appearances in 2017-18 -- while three of those appearances included trips to those sports' respective national championship games. The highlight came in May of 2018 when the men's lacrosse team won the third national championship in school history in dominant fashion at Gillette Stadium, becoming the first team to do so in 24 years. The team repeated as national champions the following year earning the school’s first-ever back-to-back national championships.

Merrimack also won four NE10 regular season titles and nine NE10 tournaments with Gibson at the helm, with three of them coming in the 2017-18 academic year alone. On the individual front, student-athletes have earned All-America recognition 59 times in that span. Carly Muscaro '17 became the first student-athlete ever to win an individual national championship at the College during the first four years of Gibson's tenure, graduating as a six-time national champion and a 12-time All-American. 

Overall, the athletic department earned five straight top-four finishes in the NE10 Presidents' Cup standings -- winning it for only the second time in school history in 2017-18 -- after not finishing higher than fifth in any of the previous eight years before Gibson's arrival. On the national scale, Merrimack has finished as high as 37th in the Learfield Directors' Cup Standings and in the top-50 in each of the last three years, marking the department's highest-ever finishes since the award's inception in the early 1990s.

From an academic standpoint, Gibson has seen Merrimack thrive on a yearly basis since he began with nearly 75 percent of all varsity programs averaging a 3.0 or higher grade point average (GPA) over the last five years. Three teams have won NE10 Academic Team Excellence Awards in each of the past two academic years, while both the men's and women's ice hockey teams have dominated Hockey East's All-Academic Teams both in terms of total selections and Top Scholar-Athlete honors. Additionally, at least one student-athlete has been named a CoSIDA All-American in each of the last four years. Merrimack also has been among the top schools nationwide in the Division II Academic Success Rate over the past five years, ranking as high as 16th nationally with a 92-percent graduation clip (compared to the four-year nationwide average of low-70 percent).

Reflective of the incredible growth that Merrimack College has enjoyed over the past decade, the Athletic Department has experienced a similar expansion. Gibson has overseen the addition of 5 new varsity programs at Merrimack including women’s ice hockey, dance, men’s volleyball, men’s golf and women’s bowling. During this period the number of opportunities for student athletes has doubled to over 800.

Gibson has helped generate the support to pave the way for a number of historic facility enhancements and additions, including the construction of Duane Stadium in 2017, the installation of Lawler Basketball Court in 2021 and the reconstructed Lawler Arena in 2023.  Gibson also oversaw the re-launch of the Merrimack College Athletics Hall of Fame, which returned in the fall of 2017 and was highlighted by the creation of a brand-new Hall of Fame and All-America recognition gallery in the Merrimack Athletics Complex.

During his Merrimack tenure, Gibson has served as Chair, DI NCAA women’s ice hockey committee, executive committee member & chair of Hockey East, executive committee of FCS ADA committee, FCS regional advisory committee member, and has served on a host of conference level boards and committees.

The former Senior Associate Athletic Director at Harvard University and a member of the Harvard athletic department since 1997, Gibson began his duties at Merrimack on July 1, 2013.

Working in the Harvard athletic department since 1997, Gibson was formerly a senior manager for the largest and oldest Division I athletic program in the country. At Harvard, Gibson’s responsibilities spanned oversight of the department’s alumni relations and stewardship efforts, club sport, intramural and recreation programs, event management and facility operations. Additionally, Gibson had sport oversight of many varsity programs, including men’s and women’s ice hockey.

Gibson brought with him depth of experience and a unique understanding of the importance of athletics and the distinct role it plays in supporting the mission of the College and advancing its strategic plan.

At Harvard, Gibson served on numerous committees including the NCAA Lacrosse Championship Local Organizing Committee, ECAC Hockey Executive Committee (Chair) and has served as the Ivy League administrator for a variety of sports. He has also participated on a number of committees at Harvard beyond athletics, supporting issues ranging from campus master planning, human resources strategy, commencement and reunion planning, academic advising and community relations.

A Bowdoin College graduate with a bachelor’s in psychology, Gibson resides in Andover with his wife, Julee, and sons, Brian and Teddy.