From the desk of this month's guest author…

Hello and greetings #DCWildcatNation! My name is Mike Miranto and I am the Associate Athletics Director for Communications here at Daemen College.  I am thrilled to be writing as this month's guest contributor to our Paw Prints e-newsletter.

My job here at Daemen covers many areas from managing our online presence at daemenwildcats.com and our various social media accounts, to overseeing our relationships with local media outlets and contributing coverage of our 17 intercollegiate athletics programs.  In short, my job is to promote all the good things that Daemen Athletics has to offer.  As you'll see from the number of news stories posted below, there was no shortage of positive news to share during late April and all of May.  From our own awards banquet - the Daemen ESPY's - to commencement and the East Coast Conference awards dinner, the wrap up to the 2016-17 academic year included a whirlwind of accomplishments for our student-athletes and Daemen Athletics as a whole.

One student-athlete I'd like to draw particular attention to is cross country/track and field standout Mackenzie Donahue.  Generally speaking, following Mackenzie and writing about the various milestones she's achieved over her four-year career has made my job incredibly fun and rewarding.  She will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest athletes in any sport to put on a Daemen uniform.  Her three consecutive selections as our Female Athlete of the Year speaks for itself.  I wanted to draw attention to Mackenzie one more time and congratulate her on her latest NCAA Division II national championship appearance - the third of her career - where she finished ninth in the outdoor track and field 10,000-meter run to earn Second Team All-America honors.  It was a fitting end to her career, having watched her previously compete in the national cross country and indoor track and field meets as well.  So to you Mackenzie, I simply say thank you for letting us all come along for one heckuva ride.

While I'm offering thanks, I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you to NCAA President Mark Emmert for taking the time to visit our campus in early May.  I don't want to overstate this, but for our student-athletes, this was maybe a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from the most influential person in collegiate athletics without having to leave our own campus.  Dr. Emmert's remarks during a townhall meeting with our student-athletes and at his Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series event served as an important reminder to all those in attendance about the impact that intercollegiate athletics is having in our world.  More thanks are due to our leaders here at Daemen - President Gary Olson, Special Assistant to the President Robert Mills and Director of Athletics Bridget Niland - for the role they played in extending the invitation to Dr. Emmert and bringing him here.

I could go on and on about the merits of Daemen Athletics, but I think I'll let you decide for yourself by inviting you to read the news releases posted below.  I will simply say that this is an incredible place, and it's an incredible time to be invovled in athletics here.  If you believe in what we're doing, and what we're building here as Western New York's Division II team, please let me invite you to join in the building process by contributing to the 5th Annual Wildcat Golf Classic.  There's many ways that you can help make that event a success, from registering a foursome to making a corporate donation, and you'll find details on just how to do that at the link provided on the save the date image below.  We look forward to seeing as many members of #DCWildcatNation as possible at the event on Thursday, August 10.

Lastly, let me close by congratulating those student-athletes who walked the stage at Daemen's commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 20.  Thank you for all you've contributed to making Daemen College a great place, and to making Daemen Athletics a burgeoning empire in Division II athletics here in our state and region.

Go Wildcats!

Mike Miranto
Associate A.D. for Communications