Daniel Hanson
Daniel Hanson will remain heavily involved in Daleville’s athletic department this year. His exact role, though, will be changing.
Hanson, who coached both the Broncos’ boys basketball and baseball teams, was recently named the school’s athletic director. He will remain as the boys basketball coach, but has stepped down as baseball coach after serving a six-season tenure that included two sectional titles.
He replaces Adam Perdue as athletic director. Perdue served as both assistant principal and athletic director for the Broncos for the 2014-15 school year, and those two positions have been split. Perdue will remain at the school as assistant principal while Hanson steps into the AD position.
Hanson said he believes Daleville’s athletic department is on the upswing following the tenures of former athletic director Eric Douglas (now the school’s principal) and Perdue. He said he hopes to continue that rise.
“(I want to) just continue to build what they’ve already instilled and what I’ve been a part of as a coach and still going to continue being a coach,” Hanson said. “But just kind of continue that process across the board for all of our coaches and athletes.”
Douglas said Hanson’s prior work at the school, including working as the Broncos’ middle school athletic director, made him stand out in the process that led to his appointment.
“He just did a fantastic job, staying organized and understanding the philosophies and what we expect,” Douglas said. “He was just the right person for the job.”
Hanson said it was difficult to give up the baseball coaching position, though he said his players understood his new opportunity.
“This has been one of my goals,” Hanson said. “I enjoy working with student-athletes and I’ve enjoyed coaching. I’ve coached as much as I could, clear back to football at Shenandoah and basketball and baseball. And I just really enjoyed it, and the opportunity to work with all of our student-athletes and coaches at a different level, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.”
Wes-Del tabs Wells for girls basketball opening
Wes-Del has hired Monica Wells to lead its girls basketball program. Wells served as the junior varsity coach in the program for the last two seasons.
Wells replaces Kyle Mealy, who went 4-36 in two seasons with the Warriors. All four of those wins came in the 2014-15 season. The Warriors broke a 76-game losing streak with a win against Anderson Prep last December, then won three additional games. As she moves into the head coaching role, Wells is hoping to keep the program on the upswing.
“Of course we want to build on that,” Wells said. “It would be nice to always get one more win than we did last year, or whatever it is. But we definitely want to be able to take knowing that we did get a victory and knowing what that feels like, and trying to build upon that and hopefully get some more victories this year, so the girls can keep building to more success.”
Wells’ prior coaching experience includes a stint as the junior varsity coach at Elwood. She said a major goal for her tenure is to find more ways for players to get involved in the sport at younger ages.
“I really just think getting them started younger is what it’s going to take to kind of change the whole face of the program,” Wells said.
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.