American International Yellow Jackets

The American International Yellow Jackets is composed of 22 teams representing American International College in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, and track and field. Men's sports include baseball, football, ice hockey, and wrestling. Women's sports include field hockey, rugby, softball, tennis, and volleyball. The Yellow Jackets compete in NCAA Division II and are members of the Northeast-10 Conference for all sports except ice hockey and women's rugby, which compete in NCAA Division I, and wrestling, which is NCAA Division II Independent. The men's ice hockey team is a member of Atlantic Hockey.[7]

American International Yellow Jackets
University	American International College
Association	Division II
Conference	Northeast-10 Conference, Atlantic Hockey
Athletic director	Matt Johnson[1]
Location	Springfield, Massachusetts
Varsity teams	21
Football stadium	Ronald J. Abdow Field[2]
Basketball arena	Henry A. Butova Gymnasium[3]
Baseball stadium	Richard F. Bedard Field[4]
Softball stadium	Judy Groff Field[5]
Other arenas	MassMutual Center
Mascot	Rex
Nickname	Yellow Jackets
Colors	Black, White, and Gold[6]
Website	www.aicyellowjackets.com

The Yellow Jackets started competing in the 1933-34 academic season in football, men's basketball and baseball. Men's soccer was added just one year later. The athletic department grew to five teams in the winter of 1948 when the Yellow Jackets started their ice hockey team.

Twenty years later, AIC introduced its first women's sport, softball. Judy Groff was introduced as the first softball coach, a position she held for 42 seasons. Volleyball, which was invented down the road in Holyoke, Massachusetts, started in the fall of 1974 with Groff also taking the reins.

In the 1977-78 school year, AIC began competing in women's basketball and men's golf. It would be seven years before the athletic department grew again when they added women's soccer for the 1985 school year.

With the emergence of lacrosse in the Northeast, the Yellow Jackets added men's lacrosse in the spring of 1992. In 1996-97, field hockey and women's lacrosse were added to the department to bring the women's teams total to six.

Ten years later, the Yellow Jackets added six teams to their already extensive department in men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track, and men's and women's outdoor track.

In 2018, the department added women's golf.

With the backing of USA Triathlon, American International College will become the 24th team in the nation to introduce a women's varsity triathlon program to its athletic department, Director of Athletics Matthew Johnson announced on Tuesday, May 29 AIC expects competition to begin in the fall of 2019.[8]