Rotary Club Gets a Dayton Athletics Update

The Dayton Rotary Club got a great Dayton ISD Athletics update from Athletic Director, Jeff Nations and Head Football/Assistant AD, Blake Ware. President Rachel Ansley introduced Coach Nations first. “We are excited about the upcoming school year for our athletes. DISD has about 1,000 athletes that span over the middle and high school levels. We offer 18 different sports for our young men and women,” stated Nations. The AD talked about two new head coaches on the girls side. With the retirement of long-time Girls Basketball coach, Suzanne Davis, Coach Ashley Sustaita has been hired along with another new hire which is Volleyball Head Coach, Carly Dyess. “They both come with passion, discipline, and enthusiasm for growing our young ladies.” The middle school is under the guidance of two veteran coaches- Coach Patricia Wilson (who has been with DISD for 24 years) and Coach Jakari Cooper who has been with the Broncos for three years. Another fall sport that we are really excited about is our Cross-Country under the direction of Coach Michael Asbill. Nations pointed out that they have a returning underclassman who qualified for regional last year and that Asbill has four strong CC runners coming up as freshman, one being his own son. Another fall sport is Team Tennis which is coached by Josh Moore. Coach Moore has been with DISD for several years and continues to build up the tennis program. Another area of discussion was the UIL realignment of the district Dayton falls in. They have a separate realignment for just football (includes: Santa Fe, Nederland, Galena Park, PNG, Texas City, Fort Bend Willowridge and Fort Bend Marshall). Then all of the other sports will be playing against different high schools which includes:Porter High School, Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Huntsville and Kingwood Park. 

Coach Blake Ware then discussed the upcoming football season. He really talked about how proud he was of the growth of the program. Coach gave the Club the High School numbers from two years ago which were 9 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 26 Sophomores and 40 Freshman for a total of 96 football players. This upcoming season the numbers have grown to 23 Seniors, 26 Juniors, 44 Sophomores and 60 Freshman for a total of 153 football players. “I am really so proud of our seniors as they have grown not only in football skills but in their leadership/character training.” Ware went on to commend the positive and ‘Team’ attitudes that he sees and hears each and every day at practice and in the locker room. The Head Football also bragged about his coaching staff and the expertise that they are bringing to the table. “I am looking forward to  this upcoming football season. I hope you all will come out to a Bronco game on Friday nights. We have some outstanding players and it should be an exciting football season.”