{"id":4509,"date":"2017-08-24T17:34:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T21:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/?p=4509"},"modified":"2018-05-13T18:46:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T22:46:06","slug":"sports-briefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/sports-briefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Briefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

New basketball coach takes helm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beating out some 200 applicants for the position, Erik Pastrana was Daytona State College\u2019s top choice for the Falcon\u2019s new head men\u2019s basketball coach.<\/p>\n

\"Coach
Coach Erik Pastrana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pastrana, who spent the last year as an assistant coach at Florida International University, brings a decade of experience as an assistant in both NJCAA and NCAA play to his first head coaching position.<\/p>\n

\u201cErik comes to us with an excellent track record, valuable postseason experience and the kind of leadership we want to impart on our student-athletes,\u201d said Tom LoBasso, president of Daytona State. \u201cWe have set a high bar for academic and athletic performance at Daytona State and we think Erik will be a great asset to advancing our men\u2019s basketball program in both areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Patrana, \u201cI am beyond excited to join Daytona State and help build on an already great reputation of academics and athletics. I have always considered DSC one of the premier jobs in not only the state of Florida, but the country as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to joining the FIU staff in 2016, Pastrana spent three years as an assistant coach under Brad Underwood, a former Falcons\u2019 head coach from 2003-06, at Stephen F. Austin University in Texas. During Pastrana\u2019s tenure, the Lumberjacks won three Southland Conference Tournament Championships, earned two major victories in the NCAA Tournament and posted an overall record of 89-14, 53-1 in conference play over three years. He also coached three consecutive conference players of the year for the Lumberjacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you find someone with Erik\u2019s experience who has roots tied to our own talented coaching tree, you know you\u2019re getting a quality coach who\u2019s not only going to be a great leader on the court, but who will really bring the best out of our student-athletes in the classroom as well,\u201d said Will Dunne, Daytona State\u2019s athletic director.<\/p>\n

Pastrana started his career as a graduate assistant under Frank Martin at Kansas State, 2007-09. In his first season with K-State, the Wildcats finished third in the Big 12 with a 21-12 record, notched their first NCAA Tournament win since 1988 and saw freshman Michael Beasley selected No. 2 in the NBA draft. Kansas State posted another 20-win season during Pastrana\u2019s second year, earning an at-large bid to the NIT.<\/p>\n

Student athletes score off field too<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two Daytona State College squads were named National Academic Team of the Year by the National Junior Collegiate Athletics Association for the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n

The Falcon women\u2019s golf team, which won its ninth national championship earlier this year, earned a fourth-straight academic title with a 3.89 team Grade Point Average, the highest of any team in the NJCAA this year. Men\u2019s baseball posted a 3.70 team GPA to earn its eleventh consecutive academic team of the year award.<\/p>\n

In total, 13 women\u2019s teams and 12 men\u2019s teams were honored by the NJCAA for posting the best GPA averages in their respective sports. DSC was one of only three schools in the nation to earn titles in multiple sports. Competition for the top honor was tough because NJCAA had a record 740 teams finish the season with a team GPA above 3.0.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate to have very dedicated leaders in our coaches and academic advisors,\u201d said Will Dunne, DSC athletics director. \u201cWe have created a program of accountability and support that builds good study habits and drives our students to achieve great things. This is an especially big year for women\u2019s golf. Earning a national championship and the highest national academic honor in the same year really exemplifies the winning tradition we have built here at Daytona State.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the team honors, men\u2019s baseball earned 16 individual All-Academic Team honors including first-team recognition for Alexander Hendricks (Jacksonville), Austin Nickle (Palm Bay), Jacob Rothwell (St. Petersburg) and Kyle Frick (New Port Richey). Seven women\u2019s golf student-athletes received individual All-Academic honors as well, including first-team honors for Cam Becker (Lutz), Kendall Johnson (Plant City) and Kaye Kwon (South Korea).<\/p>\n

A total of 48 Falcon student-athletes received individual academic honors including 12 NJCAA All-Academic First Team members (4.0 GPA), 18 NJCAA All-Academic Second Team honorees (3.8-3.99 GPA) and 18 NJCAA All-Academic Third Team recipients (3.6-3.79 GPA).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DSC adds cross-country to roster<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daytona State College is expanding its athletics lineup with a new cross country program starting this semester.\u00a0 The new additions are the first in the Florida College System to offer a men\u2019s team in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing a number of options, our trustees and senior staff recognized that adding cross country would benefit the entire college, with minimal investment,\u201d said DSC President Tom LoBasso. \u201cWe already have a successful track record in athletics with student-athletes who consistently perform well in school and after graduation. Adding to that will enhance our institutional success rates and give local high school students another avenue to pursue a future at Daytona State.\u201d<\/p>\n

DSC will begin rolling out the new program by adding a full-time faculty member this fall. In addition to teaching student success courses, required for new DSC students in the Associate of Arts program, the faculty member will serve as head coach for both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams. By the fall of 2018, the Falcons hope to have two, 10-person teams ready to run.<\/p>\n

The Florida College System Activities Association currently has seven women\u2019s cross country programs and Daytona State will be the first to offer a men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Falcons have 161 student-athletes in eight varsity sports including men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball, men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer, women\u2019s golf, fast-pitch softball, baseball and volleyball. DSC offers an all-around sports complex, including the L. Gale Lemerand Health, Wellness and Community Education Center, an indoor pool, two top-notch playing fields and a field house.\u00a0In fall 2018, the Falcons will add 20 new opportunities for student-athletes in women\u2019s and men\u2019s cross country.<\/p>\n

For more information on Falcon athletics, visit DSCFalcons.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New basketball coach takes helm Beating out some 200 applicants for the position, Erik Pastrana was Daytona State College\u2019s top choice for the Falcon\u2019s new head men\u2019s basketball coach. Pastrana, who spent the last year as an assistant coach at Florida International University, brings a decade of experience as an Continue reading Sports Briefs<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4510,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions\/4510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}