Central Arkansas women's basketball head coach Matt Daniel recently spoke at a reception for his father David in Jonesboro, where the elder Daniel has long been a highly-respected coach and administrator.

On David Daniel Day, Matt made a surprise appearance and spoke about the great impact his father has had not only on the lives of he and his brother, but on numerous kids in Jonesboro through the years.

With the importance of fatherhood playing prominently in his head, Matt's thoughts turned to being on the other side of that equation – transitioning from simply having a strong, positive father figure to also soon becoming one.

Below, he shares those thoughts.

EXCERPTS FROM JONESBORO SUN ARTICLE ON COACH DANIEL'S SPEECH FROM DAVID DANIEL DAY

Local groups honor JHS athletic director

By Cory Clark, Sun staff writer

JONESBORO — Although Jonesboro High School Athletic Director David Daniel doesn’t coach a particular sport anymore, he is still known by everyone simply as Coach D.

It’s a name he has earned over a lifetime of coaching both on and off the basketball court.
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One of the surprise attendees was Daniel’s son Matt, a former standout at JHS who is now the head basketball coach of the University of Central Arkansas women’s basketball team.

Matt has led the UCA women to a 19-4 overall record and a 9-1 mark in the Southland Conference, a mark that has his team atop the league standings.

Speaking for he and his brother Josh, Matt told those in attendance why his father deserved such recognition.
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Although he works for Jonesboro Public Schools, Matt said his father has a passion for helping all young people, no matter what school they attend.

“There is not anyone that cares more about the youth of Jonesboro, and he doesn’t really care whether it’s Nettleton, Valley View, Westside, Arkansas State, and it even reaches out to Northeast Arkansas and all of Arkansas as far as I can tell,” he said.

As a successful head coach himself, Matt said he learned two main core values from his father that have helped him greatly as a coach and as a person.

“The foundation of everything that we do is team first wins. That is the decision that we run our program with,” he said. “It is the decision that our family was run with, and it is the foundation of how my family will be ran.”

Matt said the other value his father taught him was a quote from former UCLA coach John Wooden.
“Across the rooftop of our belief system at Central Arkansas or any program that I ever take over will be our house’s golden rule,” he said. “John Wooden said ‘consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the feelings of others before your own rights.’ That is the single most repeated phrase that I’ve heard from my father.”

Even though Daniel doesn’t get to walk the sideline as a coach, Matt said his knowledge is still helping him win basketball games, including the Sugar Bears’ 81-75 home win over Texas State on Wednesday night.

“You will never stop coaching. Last night we scored a bucket on an out of bounds play that you had told me about the night before,” an emotional Matt said to his father. “Because you are the director of athletics does not mean you’re not coaching.”

Matt ended his remarks by telling his father how proud he and his brother Josh were to have a father who taught them the right way to do things on the basketball court and in life.

“While we were taught to represent the name on the front of the jersey, Josh and I have never been more proud of the name on the back,” he said.

read the full article text

I am so proud to share this story about Dad.  He and my mom have been great role models for my brother and I growing up and turned into great confidants as we matured.

The interesting twist on it all was that while I was on my way to Jonesboro straight from the practice in preparing for our next game; it was the first time I could reflect in quite some time on DAVID DANIEL DAY, which incidentally was my birthday.  It was a real reminder of our lives being God’s plan and how humbled I am to be apart of it.

Just one day earlier, my wife, Jennifer, and I found out we were pregnant and going to be blessed with a child.

We shared the news with family as immediately as we could, while it was still hard to believe our blessing of a child from God.

I am usually never at a loss for words USUALLY, but the oddest thing is that we have opened an email account for the baby from us and both sets of grandparents, and it took me a while to come up with a single thing to say.  I have never felt such a responsibility to send the right message; I wanted to send one of both courage and joy.

While I, like most of us, have made plenty of mistakes in my life getting to this point, I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am about the opportunity to get this right, and I could not have a better teammate than Jennifer to help.

So, save room on your roster.  I don’t know what roster or even what gender, and I could not care less whether it is the debate team or any possible roster you could come up with in your head.  What I do know is, that while we will continue to make mistakes and grow as parents, we will do everything in our power to raise our family with the “TEAM FIRST WINS!” mentality and keep laying it on the line every day.

My simple hope is that our child feels halfway as proud about Jennifer and I as Josh and I do about carrying our last name.

ENJOY YOUR DASH.