Meet Nathan Haslick, SECCC Director

Nathan Haslick, SECCC Director

How did you first get involved with cycling? I got involved with cycling while I was in middle school.  It was during that period where you are old enough to want to go places on your own, but not yet old enough to drive.  So, to get some freedom, I purchased a GT Ricochet mountain bike.  A few months after that, a friend to took me to a mountain bike race and I was quickly sold on competitive cycling.

What about collegiate cycling? I joined the cycling team when I was a freshman at Michigan State University.  I had already been riding and racing for years, but I was drawn in very quickly by the relationships and the overall atmosphere of collegiate cycling.

How long have you been conference director? I took on the conference director role in May of 2008.  However, I was only initially the mountain bike and cyclocross director.  I have recently added the road side to my overall duties.

Describe a typical race weekend; what do you do? In order to minimize costs of the promoting school, I try to be as involved as possible.  I typically hand out numbers, check licenses, act as the chief official, and sort out results. 

Do you ride very often? I typically ride 10-15 hours a week, although not as much in the past year due to my travel schedule with work. Race? I race primarily year to year in the SERC series as a cat 1 mountain biker, and I also mix in a few road events in either the TBRA series or the Georgia Cup series. Road or mountain? I am more partial to the mountain bike, though I spend a lot more time on my road bikes.  The road riding in the Southeast is incredible.

What kind of bike(s) do you have? I have a handful of mountain bikes, and two road bikes.  My current ride for mountain biking is my dream bike, a bass-boat blue Schwinn Homegrown.    My current ride for road is a carbon Felt F5C.

What’s your favorite part of the job? My favorite part of the job is going to Nationals at the end of the season and watching SECCC riders do well on a national scale. Least favorite? Waking up for those early-morning weekend races.  I would think that college kids would want to schedule their events later in the day and sleep in!

What are some of the unique challenges of running the Southeast conference? One unique challenge the Southeast faces is that there's a huge span of road between Macon and Gainesville where there just aren’t any schools.  This area adds significantly to driving times and makes it difficult for Florida schools to be as active in events, and vice versa for some of the North Carolina schools. 
Another unique challenge is that the SECCC has so many competitive schools and riders, that the fight for those Nationals qualifications spots is quite intense. 

Why do you keep doing it? I have always loved collegiate cycling, and I want to promote it as well as I can.  I have so many great memories of the sport, from selling beer at the county fair to raise money for our team, to taking Amtrak from Michigan to Idaho in order to race at Nationals, there are so many stories to be told.  The more I can promote that, the more I will.

What is special about collegiate cycling? The atmosphere is so unique.  Everyone at the races is in the virtually the same position; poor, dealing with school pressures, etc.  That really creates a nice environment for all the riders.  Also, it is a very good environment to introduce new riders into.  With costs so low and the emphasis on teams so high, it is very special to see all the newcomers to the sport.

Do you have any good stories (funny, heartwarming, dramatic) from being a conference director? I think the best stories I hear relate to the lengths that some of the riders go to in order to get to races.  There is no shortage of stories involving riders arriving in the wee hours of the morning to go out to race for just a few extra points. 

What is your paying job? I have held various Finance/Accounting jobs with Hyatt Hotels over the past 6 years.  However, I just recently took a job with Intercontinental Hotels Group as an analyst here in Atlanta.

Tell me three things about yourself that don’t involve cycling. 1) I have been married almost 5 years to my wife, whom I met at Michigan State.  She’s proof that there may be more important things than school! 2) I am about to graduate in May from Duke University with a master’s in business administration.  After I finish, I think I am going to be done with school for a very, very long time… 3) I am a pretty big nut when it comes to college basketball.   I have been to a couple of Final Fours, and my crowning achievement was being a Cameron Crazy this past January.