The Official Website of Catawba Valley Athletics

Nick Schroeder starts his 11th year at Catawba Valley Community College in 2023-24 where he serves as the Director of Student Life and Athletics.

As the Athletic Director at Catawba Valley, Schroeder has seen exponential growth in the four original Red Hawk athletic programs, which have won 14 conference championships, nine region championships, six district championships, made six national tournament appearances and honored 16 All-Americans.  In 2019, Schroeder helped expand CVCC’s athletic department by adding softball, esports and bass fishing.

A staunch advocate for the student-athlete, Schroeder has seen CVCC's student-athlete GPA, student-athlete retention and student-athlete graduation steadily improve each year, and over the past eight years the CVCC athletic program has seen more than 250 student-athletes sign to play at the next level.

For his efforts as Red Hawk AD, Schroeder was awarded in 2021 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) as a recipient of the Two-Year Athletic Director of the Year.

Schroeder was also awarded by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) with the George E. Killian Award of Excellence in 2021 — an honor awarded annually to individuals that have demonstrated the ideals of voluntarism, achievement, service, leadership, and excellence as exemplified by its namesake. This honor was given to Schroeder greatly in part to his work with helping to plan and host the NJCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship at CVCC in two weeks time after the original venue in Michigan was unable to host the event due to COVID-19.

In the spring of 2014, Schroeder spearheaded a rebranding campaign. In a major facet of the rebranding campaign, the changing of the Buccaneers mascot to the Red Hawks was pivotal in redefining Catawba Valley Athletics and creating a tighter bond with the Catawba Valley community.

Prior to serving as the Athletic Director, Nick served as the Assistant Athletic Director for one year under long-time Athletic Director Jeff Moore, who left his capacity to become the Program Director of the new Health & Fitness program.

Schroeder also spends his time serving the NJCAA has the Women's Director for Region 10 — a position he took in August of 2017.  Schroeder also serves on the NJCAA Eligibility Committee, the NJCAA Division II Volleyball Committee and is Chair for NJCAA Division II Softball. He supports Region 10 as the Sports Information Director, where he manages the Region 10 website — www.region10sports.com. Before being named as the Women's Director, Schroeder served as the Assistant Men's Director during the 2016-17 academic year.

Prior to coming to Catawba Valley, Schroeder worked as the Director of Compliance for the NCAA DI school Longwood University in Farmville, Va. At Longwood, Schroeder was responsible for overseeing the entire athletics program compliance with NCAA rules, regulations and eligibility. He also served in the roll as the advisor for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and game operations manager for softball.

Before Longwood University, Schroeder served in the athletic compliance offices of UNC Charlotte and the University of Louisville. He received his B.S. in Exercise Sports Science with a concentration of Athletic Training at Elon University in 2004 and earned his MS in Sport Administration at the University of Louisville in 2008.

Schroeder currently lives in Hickory, N.C. with his wife Emily Forbes Schroeder and three children — daughters Finnley and Lennon and son Brenner. His wife Emily was a former softball student-athlete at UNC Charlotte as well as a Saint Stephens High School alumnus and a 2012 graduate of the Catawba Valley Community College Nursing Program.