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Nate Hart enters his 13th year with the SUNY Canton Athletics department during the 2025-26 academic year. Hart was promoted from the Sports Information Director to the Director of Athletic Communications & Marketing in August 2016. He was promoted again to Assistant Athletic Director for Communications and Marketing in August 2020.
Hart is the primary contact for all 15 of the Roos varsity NCAA sports and is responsible for overseeing and writing all articles for www.rooathletics.com, as well as game statistics, programs and the Athletics department's public relations efforts ranging from video highlights to social media. Since taking over the athletic communications office on August 5, 2013, Hart has overseen the Athletics website, rooathletics.com, which has had nearly 1 million users and nearly 8.5 million page views.
Through nine years with SUNY Canton Hart successfully aided 1,158 student-athletes in earning awards for their performances both on their respective playing surfaces and in the classroom. Since SUNY Canton became full-time D-III members (September 1, 2015) and joined the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) prior to the 2018-19 academic year (July 1, 2018), Hart helped student-athletes rack up numerous recognition for their efforts on their playing surfaces. The Roos joined the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) as full members at the start of the 2024-25 academic year.
Overall, 96 student-athletes have earned All-Conference honors including 6 Conference Players of the Year, 6 Senior Scholar Athletes of the Year, 5 Defensive Players of the Year, 2 Rookies of the Year, 2 Coaches of the Year and 2 NAC Man of the Year honorees. He has also helped 20 student-athletes earn the prestigious SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence, 4 earn CoSIDA Academic All-District, 1 earn CoSIDA Academic All-America distinction and 6 players receive All-Region recognition among numerous other accolades. Previous to the NAC 59 student-athletes earned USCAA All-America honors.
Hart has spearheaded the Roos social media efforts as Facebook (Roo Athletics) likes and X (@rooathletics) followers have more than sextupled from 800 to over 4,800, while he created the Athletics Instagram (@rooathletics) account which has grown to over 2,200 followers. Additionally, he has supervised in the production of over 450 videos to the department's YouTube channel and added more than 500 photo galleries to the website.
Hart was elected as the SID Vice Chair of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) in August 2020 and rotated to the President's Chair during the 2021-22 academic year. He is also a member of the NAC's Marketing and Branding Committee. Hart is a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and Eastern Athletic Communications Association (EAST-COMM), which was formerly Eastern College Athletic Conference - Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA). He serves on SUNY Canton's Campus Communication Committee and Emergency Social Media Response teams. Additionally, he has served on numerous search committees including as a chair.
Hart has helped SUNY Canton receive recognition in the national spotlight assisting two student-athletes in being featured on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 Plays. Freshman men's hockey player Jeffrey Gauld's nifty backhand goal made ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 plays on October 27th, 2018. Gauld's play came in as high as No. 5 and was SUNY Canton's first ever appearance on SportsCenter!
Sophomore women's hockey player Iida Laitinen became the second SUNY Canton student-athlete and first female to appear on SportsCenter for the Roos on Thanksgiving morning, November 25, 2021.
During his second year in Canton, Hart added webcasting to the Roos marketing and media efforts through a partnership with BoxCast. The Roos offer free high definition webcasts for home games in the sports of men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, volleyball, baseball and softball. Through three full academic years (2016-2019) with the partnership with BoxCast, Hart has supervised in streaming 325 broadcasts with over 75,000 viewers.
Hart's student assistants/interns have gone on to athletic communications positions with St. Lawrence University (Assistant Director of Athletic Communications), Mansfield University (Sports Information Intern), and Cumblerand University (Sports Information Graduate Assistant).
Prior to joining the Roos, Hart spent two years as a graduate assistant for sports information at Elmira College. During his time with the Soaring Eagles he conducted all duties of what a Sports Information Director would be responsible for. He successfully guided the Athletics department through the changeover to a new SIDEARM website, while increasing the video coverage and social media precense of EC Athletics via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Hart covered the Soaring Eagles women's hockey team as they captured the 2013 National Championship with a 1-0 win over Middlebury College.
A 2011 graduate of Oswego State, Hart, worked in the sports information department at Oswego for three years, while also serving as an intern for one semester. Hart and his fellow intern were responsible for all media production for the 2011 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships including promotional materials and video prior to the meet and post-race interviews.
As a student assistant at Oswego State, Hart was responsible for assisting in the transfer to a new SIDEARM website, served as a public address announcer, scoreboard operator, and recorded statistics using StatCrew software. During his internship he supervised co-workers in the absence of the Sports Information Director, and wrote all women’s soccer and basketball post-game stories for the athletics website. He also designed and created content for men and women’s ice hockey and basketball media guides as well as shooting and editing video that complemented website stories.
Hart has also interned with The Palladium Times sports department, a local Oswego newspaper. Work responsibilities included weekly meetings with the sports editor for story assignments, interviewing sources, writing feature and preview articles, and utilizing Press Wire to add sports stories to the newspaper layout.
In his final semester prior to graduation Hart interned at WSYR-News Channel 9 in Syracuse with the sports department. Position responsibilities included logging important scoring plays in relevant sports contests to the Syracuse viewing area, cutting and editing highlights of games for newscasts at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m., and looking up statistics and important trends of games to feed the sports director for use in live broadcast. During his internship Hart got the chance to interview Syracuse basketball players Kris Joseph, Rick Jackson, Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, and C.J. Fair.
Hart also wrote sports stories for his school newspaper, The Oswegonian, and conducted live sports broadcasts at the student-run television station, WTOP-TV 10. During the winter of 2009 he also served as the JV Boys Assistant Basketball Coach at his high school, Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, under legendary Head Coach Grant Decker.
During his senior year at Oswego State he was the Membership Director of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communication honor society, as well as the Treasurer for Ed2010, an organization for those interested in the magazine industry.
Hart earned his Master’s degree in General/Business Management from Elmira College in 2013 and his Bachelor's degree in Journalism with an Athletic Coaching minor from Oswego State in 2011.
Hart resides in Canton with his wife Emily, son James and daughter Josie.
(Updated 8/21/25)
