First NJCAA National Title in the History of Northeast Athletics!

One item that I am incredibly proud of during my time with Northeast Athletics has been the introduction of "High-Five Friday." I have worked closely with area elementary and middle schools to set up a Friday during the year where our Northeast student-athletes can come to local school and greet students as they walk into the building for the day. Each athletic program takes a turn throughout the year and overall, the program has been an enormous success throughout the two years that it has been in place. We have received countless emails, phone calls and messages on social media about how students have talked for days about how exciting it was to have collegiate players out to see them at their school! Those grade-school students gained mentors and the program has led to more of those area kids coming out and attending our athletic events. This program has continued for two years and has been something that everyone in our athletic department looks forward to. Below are some pictures of our various programs vising local schools:

All of our athletic programs also host annual kids camps. Last summer I overheard one elementary schooler say, "Wow, I can't believe that college athletes play on the same court that I am on right now!" Running these camps effectively on top of other events such as local parades have been great tools in improving our footprint in the community as a college and has brought a younger demographic to our games.

I am extremely proud of the work that we have done in our community. The picture below shows a few of our men's soccer student-athletes working a local event called, "SpringTacular." I coordinated this event with our men's soccer team and it was a huge hit with area children! Our men's soccer coach received multiple emails from parents letting him know how much it meant to them to see our No. 1 ranked men's soccer team out and about in the community.

After the launch of our new athletic brand in the spring of 2024, I had the opportunity to speak about our exciting new insignias as multiple events around our town. Those included:

Nebraska School Activities Association's State Journalism Contest
Norfolk Junior High's Career Day
The Rotary Club of Norfolk, Nebraska

Being our in our community and promoting our athletic department is something that I really enjoy. We capped our launch week by handing out stickers at four different local elementary schools in what was an XL version of our High-Five Friday Tradition!

We also have started a tradition of gathering our department and sending off all of our teams who are competing in playoff contests on the road, which has been a ton of fun and has brought all of our student-athletes together even tighter than they were before.

We also occasionally host events outside of our own athletic contests at Northeast, such as the Northeast Nebraska All-Star Basketball and Volleyball Games, and I play a key role in working with community leaders and coaches to make these events successful.