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A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Eric Roldan

A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Eric Roldan

Originally from East Chicago, Eric Roldan currently serves as the athletic director at Bishop Noll Institute (BNI). As a young leader, Roldan is just getting started on his journey towards bringing the Warriors to success.

Roldan first started his career as an athlete at BNI playing soccer, baseball, and basketball and making a state championship appearance for basketball in 2011. Roldan went on to play collegiately at Trine University.

Shortly after completing his undergraduate studies, Roldan joined the coaching staff for Indiana University Northwest (IUN)'s Men’s Basketball Team while enrolling in graduate school and was the physical education teacher at St. Thomas More School in Munster. Upon completing his MBA, IUN allowed Roldan to be more involved in coaching which allowed him to pursue his dream of a career in athletics.

In 2019, Roldan began seeking out a full-time position and was fortunate enough that BNI had an opening for the athletic director position. Roldan applied for the position, was offered the job, and is now in year three of leading the athletic department at BNI.

Roldan contributes much of his success and experiences to his time at IUN. Roldan served as the head assistant men’s basketball coach, and in his final year was moved to interim head coach of IUN's Men’s Soccer Team. Roldan’s responsibilities included recruitment and helping the program become established on campus. His time spent learning from his mentors and leaders in the athletic department helped develop him into the leader he is today.

“I was fortunate with IU Northwest allowing me to be very hands-on in a small athletic department. Their athletic director, Ryan Shelton, allowed me to take up some roles within the athletic department just to kind of see what his day-to-day was like,” Roldan said. “The head coach that I was under was also my high school assistant coach. He allowed me to be in the mix of scheduling, some budgetary things for the team, some purchasing, and ordering. Both of those individuals allowed me to shadow but also be hands-on for some stuff for the team and the department.”

Making the transition from collegiate sports to high school sports is no easy task, but Roldan’s move to athletic director at BNI was made easier thanks to his connection to Bishop Noll and the Catholic school community.

“I was teaching preschool through eighth grade at a Catholic school, so I was basically always around parents or administration students pretty regularly throughout my days, which I think helps with being able to see what’s done, how people communicate, what schedules look like, and what daily tasks and duties look like. I think that that was huge for my experience,” Roldan said. “Also, the fact that BNI was home, this was where I went to high school, really helped. Being on the other side as an administrator was definitely a new experience, but I was fortunate to come to a place where I already knew a good amount of people and administration had already known who I was. That made it pretty seamless for me.”

Although his transition was comfortable, things heated with the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in the spring of his first academic year as athletic director at BNI. There were cancellations, rescheduling, and difficult decisions, but Roldan and his team at BNI overcame the hardships and obstacles to ensure everyone’s health and safety were a top priority. Part of his success came from the ability to adapt to any situation.

“Just having to figure out how to adapt, that’s the key. Staying in constant communication and being able to adapt is super important,” Roldan said.

Now, as sports begin to return across the nation, Roldan and the students at BNI are more excited than ever to return to competition. Being restricted from doing something you love isn’t easy, but it’s made the return that much sweeter for everyone at Bishop Noll.  

“Just to be able to see the kids come back out and take a few hours out of their day to run, kick a soccer ball, or throw a football around, and then seeing them start to get ready for wrestling and basketball and our volleyball team doing their thing, just seeing the transition of our sports coming back, you can see how much of a positive impact it had on our students,” Roldan said. “Whether it’s mental health or the obvious physical health that are impacted, I can see students form that emotional attachment or emotional connection to their classmates again.”

Roldan loves the opportunity to help his athletes develop into the best versions of themselves, which doesn’t always mean just winning games. Roldan acknowledges that as an athlete, the focus is winning games for your team and your school. But as he has grown in his administrator role, Roldan has a new definition of winning.