Athletic Director's message to Falcon Nation
4/7/2020 9:47:00 AM | General
Hello Falcon Nation,
I hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy during these extraordinary times in our nation. Despite working remotely, the athletic department has been quite busy these last few weeks. I would like to take a few minutes today to introduce a new communication format that I will be sending every couple of weeks so that we can try to stay better connected to you during these unique times. I hope you will find the messaging both informative and timely.
I'm sure you have seen this week that we finalized the hiring of our new men's basketball coach Joe Scott. Candidly, the process was a little different with the effects of COVID-19, but I assure you that it didn't hinder us in finding the right person to lead our basketball program. Coach Scott led us to our only conference championship in 2004 and our first NCAA tournament bid in 42 years, but he also paved the way and the recruiting pipeline for the success that followed, which included another NCAA tournament appearance and an NIT Final Four. He separated himself from an impressive pool of coaching candidates throughout the search. He has tremendous passion for the game, an understanding of the Academy and what we stand for and his approach and vision for leading our young men on and off the court resonated with our search committee. Air Force men's basketball has a bright future under Coach Scott's leadership. He has already started connecting with our current cadet-athletes, our matriculating preppies and recruits, while also working to put together his staff. You can get a full recap of the announcement, listen to the teleconference and see his personal message to the fans on our website. You can also secure season tickets, which are now on sale for what promises to be an exciting 2020-21 season!
Construction projects are presently still moving along in the department, closely following Colorado's critical business guidance. The Clune Arena renovation is progressing and I anticipate we'll have a few noticeable fan improvements that we will preview and share with you in the coming weeks and months. The Holaday Athletic Center is getting repairs from high-wind damage to the northwest corner of the facility last year and we installed a new turf surface in the baseball stadium along with some fence improvements this spring. I will have more details on some of these items and other construction efforts in future updates, but wanted to let you know that progress continues even through the pandemic.
This spring has been historic at the Academy and, as you know, graduation has now been moved up to April 18. While this will not be the typical celebration of our amazing cadets, it will be an appropriate recognition of all that they have accomplished, which is quite remarkable given our current circumstances. I applaud our Superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, and our Academy leadership teammates in finding a way to celebrate our seniors. The athletic department will be heavily involved in assisting with the graduation activities. While there will be no Cadet Awards Ceremony or other recognition ceremonies, we will still recognize our top cadet-athletes. The athletic department will still honor our Top 6 Award winners, along with all our team most valuable athletes. They will still receive their trophies and our seniors will also receive their framed letter awards. We will have to adjust and celebrate some of these outstanding achievements through our website and social media (similar to what we have been doing for our seniors this spring since the cancellation of their playing seasons). We hope this will help to continue to ease what has understandably been a disappointing final few months for our seniors. I am proud of how our seniors have adapted to this ever-changing environment and their flexibility and resiliency proves that we are sending a class of outstanding officers and leaders into our Air Force very soon.
Thank you for all you do to support Air Force Athletics and the Academy. I look forward to continuing these updates as we move forward. Please continue to check-in on our website for continued recognition of our outstanding cadet-athletes and updates on Falcon athletics.
Sincerely,
Nathan Pine
Director of Athletics
I hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy during these extraordinary times in our nation. Despite working remotely, the athletic department has been quite busy these last few weeks. I would like to take a few minutes today to introduce a new communication format that I will be sending every couple of weeks so that we can try to stay better connected to you during these unique times. I hope you will find the messaging both informative and timely.
I'm sure you have seen this week that we finalized the hiring of our new men's basketball coach Joe Scott. Candidly, the process was a little different with the effects of COVID-19, but I assure you that it didn't hinder us in finding the right person to lead our basketball program. Coach Scott led us to our only conference championship in 2004 and our first NCAA tournament bid in 42 years, but he also paved the way and the recruiting pipeline for the success that followed, which included another NCAA tournament appearance and an NIT Final Four. He separated himself from an impressive pool of coaching candidates throughout the search. He has tremendous passion for the game, an understanding of the Academy and what we stand for and his approach and vision for leading our young men on and off the court resonated with our search committee. Air Force men's basketball has a bright future under Coach Scott's leadership. He has already started connecting with our current cadet-athletes, our matriculating preppies and recruits, while also working to put together his staff. You can get a full recap of the announcement, listen to the teleconference and see his personal message to the fans on our website. You can also secure season tickets, which are now on sale for what promises to be an exciting 2020-21 season!
Construction projects are presently still moving along in the department, closely following Colorado's critical business guidance. The Clune Arena renovation is progressing and I anticipate we'll have a few noticeable fan improvements that we will preview and share with you in the coming weeks and months. The Holaday Athletic Center is getting repairs from high-wind damage to the northwest corner of the facility last year and we installed a new turf surface in the baseball stadium along with some fence improvements this spring. I will have more details on some of these items and other construction efforts in future updates, but wanted to let you know that progress continues even through the pandemic.
This spring has been historic at the Academy and, as you know, graduation has now been moved up to April 18. While this will not be the typical celebration of our amazing cadets, it will be an appropriate recognition of all that they have accomplished, which is quite remarkable given our current circumstances. I applaud our Superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, and our Academy leadership teammates in finding a way to celebrate our seniors. The athletic department will be heavily involved in assisting with the graduation activities. While there will be no Cadet Awards Ceremony or other recognition ceremonies, we will still recognize our top cadet-athletes. The athletic department will still honor our Top 6 Award winners, along with all our team most valuable athletes. They will still receive their trophies and our seniors will also receive their framed letter awards. We will have to adjust and celebrate some of these outstanding achievements through our website and social media (similar to what we have been doing for our seniors this spring since the cancellation of their playing seasons). We hope this will help to continue to ease what has understandably been a disappointing final few months for our seniors. I am proud of how our seniors have adapted to this ever-changing environment and their flexibility and resiliency proves that we are sending a class of outstanding officers and leaders into our Air Force very soon.
Thank you for all you do to support Air Force Athletics and the Academy. I look forward to continuing these updates as we move forward. Please continue to check-in on our website for continued recognition of our outstanding cadet-athletes and updates on Falcon athletics.
Sincerely,
Nathan Pine
Director of Athletics
Troy Calhoun and Players POST Wyoming
Sunday, October 19
Football Press Conference October 14, 2025
Tuesday, October 14
AFWSOC Class Competition Game Show
Tuesday, October 14
Football Press Conference - September 30th, 2025
Tuesday, September 30
