Eric Nazar

Since beginning at Hampshire in fall 2016, Coach Nazar’s teams have won four straight Yankee Conference (YSCC) championships in women’s cross country. Nazar’s women’s team placed 4th at USCAA Cross Country Nationals at Virginia Beach in 2017, where Hampshire’s top three runners were named All-Americans. Nazar’s men’s cross country team achieved a best-ever runner-up finish at the 2018 Yankee Conference championships and has placed at least one athlete on the All-Conference team each year but one.

Nazar started the track and field team at Hampshire with 18 student-athletes in spring 2017, and he has coached 19 All-Conference performers in cross country, one YSCC individual champion, eight Academic All-Americans, and numerous track YSCC conference and USCAA nationals medalists, including one national champion. Nazar was named Yankee Conference Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year for four consecutive years (2016-19).

Nazar has also served as instructor for outdoor programs classes including Weight Training, Strength and Conditioning, Thru-Hiking, Survival Living, Land Navigation, Trail Maintenance, and Outdoor Adventure Sampler.

Prior to Hampshire, Nazar coached track and cross country at Amherst Regional High School (Amherst, MA) from 2007 to 2016, where his teams won five sectional titles. Over ten years he coached four All-States cross country medalists, 14 All-States track qualifiers, eight Nationals track qualifiers, 20 sectional All-Academic selections, five All-States All-Academic team selections, and 29 athletes who went on to compete at the NCAA level. Nazar was named coach of the year by the Massachusetts State Track Coach’s Association in 2012.

A 2003 graduate of Georgetown University with a bachelor of science in languages, Nazar also holds a master’s degree in human development and psychology from Harvard University. Nazar is a certified Wilderness First Responder, a USA Track & Field Level 1 track coach, and holds a Specialist coach’s certification in sprints & hurdles from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Nazar since college has competed in triathlons, road and trail races, and has backpacked more than 1,200 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. He previously held the fastest known time (FKT) on the 114 mile Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.