Danny Day is looking forward to his first full season with the Orcas.
Danny Day, the recently hired Athletic and Recreations Director at Whatcom Community College, is in the process of adjusting to his new role and responsibilities.
“The Whatcom position was something that I felt really strongly about, said Day. “For me, it was an opportunity to move into more of a leadership role.”
Day was previously employed at Corban University in Salem, Oregon, as an assistant Athletic Director, and first visited Whatcom in December 2018.
“I saw how great an institution Whatcom is and I got a chance to get connected with the students and staff here,” Day said. “I saw it was a really special place, and my wife and I also saw that we would be able to raise a family here.”
Day and his wife have two young children and hope to create a life for themselves in Bellingham.
“We are here to really provide opportunities for students who want to pursue a higher education and we’re here for them to also compete intercollegiately.”
Danny Day, Director for Athletics and Recreation
Day said he hopes to stay at Whatcom for a long time to continue creating positive change in the community, while also furthering his career in athletic communications.
“My freshman year of college I got the opportunity to work as a play-by-play broadcaster and public address announcer at the University of Redlands,” Day said. “I had the opportunity to experience working in collegiate athletics and from there that progressed into different job opportunities then I worked for ESPN for minor league baseball, but then I found that collegiate athletics was where I really wanted to be.”
Day was at Corban University for the last five years.
“I found at Corban that I had a real passion for impacting student athletes lives and figuring out how best I could do that,” Day said.
As the Athletic Director at Whatcom, Day will have the opportunity to follow his passions and pursue new goals.
“One of the fun things about the job is that no one day is the same,” Day said. “It’s a dual role to impact all of our student athletes’ lives, but also the general student population as well and seeing how best we can provide opportunities to all of our students here at Whatcom to positively impact their experience.”
Although Day is focused on improving the Athletic and Recreation program, he is also concerned about the success of his students outside of the program.
“Something I’ve been really stressing to our students is that they are student-athletes, they aren’t just here to be athletes, but that they are students first and we are here to support them on all fronts and really making sure that we are setting them up for success academically. Ultimately, if they want to go and play the next level, they can’t do that unless they have the grades necessary to do so, so making sure that academics are their first priority,” Day said.
Not only is Day pushing academic success to his athletes, but he’s hoping to increase their involvement with the community.
“One of the things that I’ve been trying to do is getting the teams more connected to the community,” Day said. “Our men’s soccer team got connected with the burn victims camp down on one of the local lakes where they would go and interact with the burn victims. Both of our soccer teams have also been at Kulshan Middle School teaching the students there how to play soccer and other sports as well.”
While Day has completed many accomplishments in the short time period that he’s held this position, he’s still in the process of adjusting to all his new responsibilities.
“I’ve been learning a lot about many of the internal things at Whatcom, so figuring out how best I can support all of our coaches who are really the ones on the front lines and who are impacting our students, then figuring out the needs of our students with their specific goals and aspirations and how to achieve them.” Day said.
In addition to the student’s support, Day must also focus on the coaches needs since they are the individuals creating strong athletes for the program.
“Everyone else is on staff from last year, but Jerome Jenkins is our new Men’s Basketball Coach, he was hired at the end of June and he’s got both the basketball teams training already,” Day said. “He’s been doing some really positive things with that program and changing the culture, while also building on that of what the previous coaches did with bringing in some really great players and there’s also some good newcomers.”
And while winter sports have begun training, fall sports have started competing.
“All three teams are off to a great start. Conference games started within the last couple of weeks, so they’ll play through the rest of this month and then through October and then we’ll finish our conference play and I think they will all challenge and be in the top three or four spots within the north region, so they are all looking really competitive and really strong this year,” Day said.
Day is working hard to ensure growth within the students and Athletic and Recreation program.
“We are here to really provide opportunities for students who want to pursue a higher education and we’re here for them to also compete intercollegiately,” Day said. “We are here to help impact them in a positive way and provide the framework for more than just sports or academics, but life in general as they learn leadership and teamwork skills and learn how to overcome adversity.”
