Well, it has happened again. In the blink of an eye, another semester has come and gone, and with it, the ebbs and flows of a successful fall season. For the first time ever, Daemen sits atop the standings for the 2023-24 East Coast Conference Commissioner's Cup which measures success across all of the league's championship sports. Much work is yet to be done to stay on top of that mountain through the spring, but we're excited to be in this position. Kudos to our student-athletes and coaches for putting in the work to get us to that point.

In addition, it's been a successful semester away from the fields and courts in a number of different ways...

• In October, we hosted a leadership forum for 19 student-athletes from all nine East Coast Conference institutions. It was great to welcome each student-athlete to our campus where they received leadership training from Laura Azzarella, associate vice president for employee engagement here at Daemen, as well as mental performance coaching from Nate Huckle who has additionally been working with all of our teams this semester. In coordination with our colleagues at D'Youville, we are also able to provide these students with an experience of attending a Buffalo Sabres game.
• Also in October, we unveiled our new Team IMPACT Wall of Fame, highlighting the children that have been impacted by time spent with our teams. This student-led initiative is a tremendous addition to our facility. That same day, we welcomed several of our current Team IMPACT children to celebrate them during a women's volleyball match, providing just some of the 700 hours of community service that our student-athletes participated in this fall. 
• In the spirit of listening to our student-athletes about the types of services they feel are essential to their success, we have been able to engage with Natalie Robertello, a registered dietitian and owner of BeFueled Sports Nutrition. Natalie has done tremendous work evaluating the meals our student-athletes are consuming, both on campus and off, in order to best prepare them for success in their sport as well as a lifetime of healthy eating. I should add that the services of both Natalie Robertello and Nate Huckle have been funded entirely through external revenue sources. When we make appeals for fundraising, we're not kidding when we say we're investing those dollars into services that directly benefit our student-athletes! 
• Work has continued on two separate facility projects. We have finalized construction plans for a new Student-Athlete Performance Center which will be housed in a re-imagined area of our existing facility. This project was delayed in part due to the damage suffered in Duns-Scotus Hall from the 2022 holiday blizzard, but we're full steam ahead on it in the coming months. Also, we're nearing the final design stages of the much-anticipated West Royal Park project. This nearly $10 million project is a collaboration between Daemen and the Town of Amherst which will result in a new 1,000 seat soccer/lacrosse stadium as well as six lighted tennis courts to be used by our teams, among other community amenities. We expect the construction bidding process to begin over the winter months with shovels in the ground in Spring of 2024. 
• We're also pleased for Daemen to be a substantial contributor to the East Coast Conference's ranking as the number three conference in all of NCAA Division II in terms of Academic Success Rate. 
• And lastly, in the near future we will be announcing a renewed partnership with ADPRO Sports which will make Under Armour the official uniform and apparel provider for our teams. ADPRO has been a tremendous partner of ours for more than a decade, and we're excited about everything that Under Armour is bringing to the table. This will be a much more collaborative arrangement with Under Armour itself having a routine presence on our campus. 

In closing, I hope you and your family have a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. We'll get things ramped back up shortly after the New Year with 16 home games in January. I hope to see you at a game or two! 

Go Wildcats!

Sincerely,

Traci Murphy
Director of Athletics