CCAA Athletic director of the year Danielle Hyde (L) accepting her reward from CCAA VP of marketing Ray Chateau at the CCAA annual general meeting. (VIU)

By Jordan Davidson

cherry on top

VIU athletic director tops off huge year with CCAA’s top honour

Jun 17, 2023 | 5:32 AM

NANAIMO — Vancouver Island University’s director of athletics and recreation is “surprised, shocked and humbled” to be named the 2023 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) athletic director of the year.

Danielle Hyde oversaw the 2022-23 season which had their varsity soccer, basketball, and volleyball teams all qualify for their respective national championship tournaments, a feat no other Canadian post-secondary institution was able to achieve.

Hyde credits her success to the solid athletic programs already in place, something she’s been a part of first as a player, then as manager of recreation and facilities in campus recreation, and now as the athletic director.

“I can’t say enough about our coaching staff and the team I get to work with at VIU. It feels like I’m winning the award, but we’re all winning the award because, without them, there’s no award,” Hyde told NanaimoNewsNOW.

The women’s basketball team eventually went on to be crowned national champions, while the men’s basketball and women’s soccer squads earned national bronze medals, while both volleyball teams finished fourth in the nation.

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This was also the first year both Mariners’ soccer teams won provincial conference championships in the same season.

From 1997 to 2001, Hyde was a star setter with the then-Malaspina University-College Mariners. Over those four years, Hyde was a conference first-team all-star in every season she played, won three provincial gold and one bronze medal, and was named top player in the conference in the 1999, 2000, and 2001 seasons.

Danielle Hyde (front row, middle) and her first Malaspina Mariners provincial championship team in 1998-99. (PACWEST)

Hyde first got the job of director of athletics in February 2020, succeeding Stephanie White who’s now at the University of Windsor.

Hyde helped hold the athletic department together during the trying first year and a half of pandemic restrictions.

“It was March 2020, the championships were cancelled, enter the pandemic, and the year and a half or whoever long it was of remote work and try to figure out how to have things carry on, and we did. We had our teams practising, and coaches still working with them through all the restrictions and here I am now.”

Hyde said her department’s main goal was to keep the student-athletes engaged and active during their cancelled season, modifying practices and drills depending on the current restrictions at the time.

“Thankfully we did, we retained most of our athletes, they addled through and stayed part of their teams, and at the same time we were trying to engage the rest of campus in fitness and health and trying to get them off of their screens which is what became so normal to all of us.”

Hyde spoke with NanaimoNewsNOW at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on her way home from the CCAA annual general meeting in Niagra Falls.

She and her department are looking forward to a bit of a breather this summer before jumping right back into when students begin returning to campus in mid-August.

“We’ve had a couple of years of hosting championships and wrapping up this season was a busy one obviously with all of our teams making it to the championships, so we were busy right up until the end. But really, we’re right back at it, planning for next year.”

This is the first time a VIU athletic director has won the award, and only the fourth time a B.C. athletic director has won since the award was first handed out in 2000.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow