In an ever-changing intercollegiate athletics landscape, stability can be hard to come by and success even more difficult to maintain. Over the past two decades, Elizabethtown College has enjoyed plenty of both, due to the unwavering direction and leadership of athletic director Nancy Latimore. Latimore, who has held the position since 1995, announced Friday her plans to retire in June following 20 years of service to the college.
 
Latimore joined the Blue Jay family after four years as an associate director of athletics at Clarion University and took a program steeped in winning tradition to the next level.
 
Under her direction, Elizabethtown College teams have excelled athletically and academically, been active participants in the surrounding community and raised funds and awareness for various local and national causes and charities.
 
During Latimore's tenure, Elizabethtown reintroduced the sport of men's track & field, while adding women's track & field at the turn of the new millennium. The College increased its varsity athletic program offering to 22 when men's and women's lacrosse were added in 2002.
 
Latimore worked closely with President Carl J. Strikwerda on Elizabethtown's behalf to join the Landmark Conference. The College was extended an invitation to the conference in April, 2013, and became the ninth full-time member institution in July, 2014.
 
The Blue Jays have claimed 75 team conference championships with Latimore leading the department. Thirteen of those were won by men's cross country, which went on an unprecedented run of eight straight Middle Atlantic Conference Championships from 1999-2006. Women's cross country and women's tennis have both taken home nine conference titles, and men's indoor track & field seven. Last fall, men's and women's cross country swept conference titles, giving Elizabethtown its first two Landmark championships.
 
E-town has continued to enjoy national success, too, making 54 team appearances in NCAA championships. Men's basketball claimed a national runner-up finish in 2001-02 and women's soccer advanced to –and hosted– the 1997 NCAA Division III Final Four.
 
Many individuals also performed on the national stage with Latimore serving as AD, including Kevin Clark, who won the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship in the pole vault in 2007. Clark was the institution's first individual national champion since Beckie Donecker (women's tennis) in 1982.
 
The overall strength of Elizabethtown's athletic performances are exemplified by 13 top-100 finishes in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings, a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today to recognize the nation's top well-rounded athletic departments. Elizabethtown finished a program-best 66th in 2012-13.
 
Latimore's successful 20-year run is not just about athletic achievement, however.
 
The daughter of former Juniata College AD Ralph Harden, Latimore has worked non-stop to grow the department, improve facilities and bring national championship events to Elizabethtown. The College hosted the 2010 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships and will serve as host of the 2015 DIII Wrestling Championships at Giant Center in Hershey this March.
 
She's responsible for an athletics staff that has achieved extraordinary success, and one that has seen far less turnover than many of those around it. Seven current head coaches have held their positions for at least 10 years, while Skip Roderick (men's soccer) and Bob Schlosser (men's basketball) have been with Latimore during the entirety of her stay at E-town. Former head women's basketball coach Yvonne Kauffman also worked side-by-side with Latimore for 17 seasons before retiring from that position following the 2011-12 season.
 
"I am exceedingly proud of all that my colleagues and I have accomplished together over the past 20 years," said Latimore. "However, the achievement and legacy that I, personally, am most proud of is the exceptional staff that I have put together for the College. No college has a more talented or dedicated staff."
 
In 2001, E-town put the finishing touches on an outdoor track & field facility that has played host to multiple conference championship meets. A few years later, in 2004, the $1.3 million Kevin Scott Boyd Memorial Stadium opened for the baseball team.
 
Latimore oversaw the addition of Wolf Field for the field hockey and lacrosse teams, as well as upgrades to the facility in 2014, which included new spectator seating. A new softball facility, The Nest, was completed in 2001, along with the installation of lights at Ira R. Herr Field (soccer). The Jay Walk was opened in 2009, a massive project that included new office space for coaches and administrative staff, hall of fame and trophy displays and a link between Brossman Commons and Thompson Gymnasium.
 
The first female athletic director at Elizabethtown College, Latimore knew she was destined for a career in athletics from an early age.
 
"My love of sports started at a very early age," she said. "My father was the AD and coached men's basketball at Juniata in the 1960s. My twin sister, Karen, and I played sports non-stop. It was through those countless hours I spent competing on local playgrounds and fields that I learned lessons which have served me well throughout life."
 
Latimore received her bachelor of science in health and physical education from West Chester University in 1976 and earned a master of education in the same discipline at the university in 1981. She got her coaching start as a graduate assistant with the Golden Rams women's tennis team in 1977, before heading back to her hometown of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, to serve as assistant director of athletics, head women's basketball and head women's tennis coach at Juniata College from 1977-86.
 
Latimore was named to the inaugural NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee in 1980. The committee selected Elizabethtown College to host the inaugural DIII women's championship in 1982. Her work on that committee helped pave the way for her appointment with the NCAA as its assistant director of championships, a post she held from 1986-91.
 
As women's basketball coach at Juniata, Latimore led the Eagles to a 101-80 record. Her 1979-80 team went 24-4 and reached the AIAW national quarterfinals, while the 1985-86 team reached the regional round of the NCAA Tournament and earned her WBCA District Coach of the Year honors. In 1998, Latimore was inducted into the Juniata College Sports Hall of Fame.
 
Latimore has been far more than Elizabethtown's athletic director over the past 20 years. She and husband, Bill, attend numerous games each season supporting Blue Jay student-athletes across all sports. Her daughter, Sarah, graduated from Elizabethtown in 2011 and is a graduate student at Bryn Mawr College. Son, David, is a member of the Blue Jay men's lacrosse team and will graduate this spring.
 
Latimore has served as chair of the physical education department for the last 20 years and has given her time to search committees for the Vice President of Administration and Dean of Students positions, the strategic planning group, and the faculty/staff committee for the 2003 "To Serve Tomorrow" capital campaign.
 
At the conference level, Latimore represented the MAC athletic directors on the conference's strategic planning, hall of fame, gender equity and numerous ad hoc committees over the years. In the Landmark, she has been the liaison for the field hockey and softball coaches' committees and recently agreed to serve on the conference's Assistant Commissioner search committee.
 
With nearly four decades dedicated to intercollegiate athletics, Latimore provided a simple summation to her career. "It has been an honor and privilege leading Blue Jay athletics, and working with my colleagues to provide our student-athletes with the best possible intercollegiate experience."