Nathan Baliva joined Monmouth College as the Sports Information Director in March 2021. Prior to Monmouth, Baliva worked for the Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball team of the Midwest League, where he spent the 18 years as the organization's director of media, broadcasting and baseball operations.
While with the Chiefs, Baliva also ran the team's community relations, social media and host family programs. In addition to being the radio broadcaster of nearly 2,500 minor league baseball games, Baliva was also responsible for all of the Chiefs' press releases, game notes, game recaps, local and national media interactions, the team blog and podcast, statistics and interviews.He covered dozens of future Major Leaguers including Yadier Molina, Javier Baez and Josh Donaldson while working alongside Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg as the Peoria manager in 2007 and 2008.
Baliva has experience with high school and college sports as well. As a broadcaster he has called the Illinois High School Association boys' and girls' soccer state finals since 2015, broadcasted three IHSA girls' basketball state finals, and was on the call for the IHSA football state finals in 2017 and '18. Baliva has called high school basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, baseball and softball and nearly every school between Champaign, Illinois, and the Quad Cities. He has also called women's soccer, baseball and softball on ESPN+ for Illinois State University and written extensively for online publications and sports blogs.
A native of Chatham, Illinois, Baliva graduated from Marquette University in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast and electronic communication. While at Marquette, he spent a semester abroad at St. Claire's University in Oxford, England. Baliva earned a master's degree in sports communication from the University of Florida in 2003.
He currently resides in Monmouth.
