So, the 2015-16 academic year is officially over. We held a congratulatory luncheon for our Daemen student-athletes who completed their athletic eligibility; it was a fabulous event held last Friday, May 20th. It was the second straight year in which Daemen Athletics took some time to visit with these students and their guests as they embark on the next chapter of their life. This year the event was held at Daemen's Musicalfare Theater, which served as a perfect backdrop for the celebration. It was a was a bittersweet day that highlighted what Daemen is all about, which is providing a quality student-athlete experience focused on both athletic and academic achievement.
  
With the academic year complete, Daemen Athletics turns to our summer events and projects.  Our talented staff has worked hard this year creating revenue-producing opportunities to fund a number of infrastructure projects that will take place in May and June.  The first of these project is near completion and involved the building of men's and women's team rooms off of the existing locker rooms. In 2016-17, these rooms will house the men's and women's basketball teams.  As many of you know the original locker structure made it difficult to host back-to-back basketball games as teams quickly ran out of meeting and locker room space.  The new team rooms will provide gathering spots for the basketball student-athletes and alleviate the locker room pile-ups that occurred during double-headers.  We are currently in the process of raising money for a complete locker room overhaul in 2016-17 that will provide dedicated locker room space for student-athletes from our additional teams.  In July, we will turn out attention to completing the final two coaches' offices.  Upon completion, we will have reached our strategic plan goal of ensuring that each Daemen head coach has a designated office to meet with prospective and current student-athletes.  Once again, we are grateful for the support of corporate partners and donors who make these improvements possible. 

Summer camp season will be here before we know it, and is really already underway with our volleyball setting school which began earlier this month.  Our staff has worked diligently to expand camp offerings and enhance the programming of existing camps.  For a complete listing of camps, please click here.  We are also excited to announce the first annual Daemen College Summer Track Meet Series presented by First Niagara Bank.  Each Tuesday night in July at Sweet Home High School, the Daemen track and field and cross country teams will conduct track meets for the Western New York and Southern Ontario communities.  Each week there will be a premiere event race brought to you by Runner's Roost of Orchard Park, N.Y.  Winners of the event will receive commemorative prizes.  This is a truly all ages event with a special kids dash.  All proceeds will go to support the Daemen track and field and cross country teams. We hope to see you there!

We are very excited to announce that we will be partnering with RP Oak Hill Building Company to host our Fourth Annual Wildcat Golf Classic.  The outing will take place Thursday, August 11^th at Glen Oak Golf Course in East Amherst, New York.  Complete details are available at daemenwildcats.com/wildcatgolfclassic.  Please remember that 100% of the proceeds of the golf tournament go to support the student-athletes here at Daemen.  Last year's funds provided additional team meeting spaces for student-athletes, wireless hot spots so they can do work while on bus trips, leadership training and a two-day pre-season summit for fall sport teams.  Monies from this year's outing will support additional scholarship funds for our individual sports and the next phase of academic support enhancements.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about Daemen Athletics, feel free to email me at bniland@daemen.edu and remember to BE FIERCE!