Air Force Athletics could be heading into a new atmosphere with athletic director Nathan Pine.
Pine was introduced as the new Falcon Athletic Director, the first in Academy history without government experience. He’ll be employed by Air Force Academy Athletic Corporation or AFAAC, the organization that funds the athletic department.
“I think there is a ton of potential here and we are already having success,” Pine said. “I’m stepping into a good place to jump in and raise the bar.”
Pine was introduced as the new Falcon Athletic Director, the first in Academy history without government experience. He’ll be employed by Air Force Academy Athletic Corporation or AFAAC, the organization that funds the athletic department.
Pine comes from Holy Cross where he served as the AD since 2013 but before that he spent four years at West Point with the Black Knights in their Athletic Leadership Department. That experience and knowledge jumped out in the interview process with Lt. General Jay Silveria and the other coaches on the Hill.
“I think each of the of the academies are different in how they do things, so I understand and respect that,” Pine said. “I feel like I’ve already shortened my learning curve a little bit on government contracting and how that all goes into running an athletic department at a military academy. But at the end of the day there are things that I’m going to learn early on that are going to be different and that learning curve is shortened a little bit from four years at West Point and I enjoyed them very much.”
The Academy used a nationwide search committee to identify Pine and as an employee of AFAAC, Pine will be compensated “differently,” according to Silveria
“It also gives him a greater latitude to take on a number of outside organizations – his interactions with that – because he is not a government employee,” Silveria said. “I told him right from the very beginning that the most important thing for us is developing leaders of character and it has to be about culture and climate at Air Force Athletics.”
Pine said he’s “juggling a lot of balls in the air right now” but he wants to evaluate facilities, build and foster relationships with the coaches and Cadets and bridge the gap between the community at large and the Academy.
“Number one, go out and invite folks to come out and be apart of it and; number two, making it an enjoyable experience while they are here so that they want to come back – I have found to be something that works well at every institution,” Pine said. “I think the other piece is being engaging and articulating the vision. What we are trying to do? Why is it important to come and support our cadet athletes and the experience? Because you have to sell the vision to get people to buy in, especially when you have a community of folks that not all of them have gone to the Academy or at least some know about it and have been here a long time others are seeing it for the first time. So you are engaging them on different levels – that vision and what you are trying to do is probably the most important thing.”
“I told him right from the very beginning that the most important thing for us is developing leaders of character and it has to be about culture and climate at Air Force Athletics,” said Silveria.
