Friday Feature - Associate Athletic Director Danielle Brazil

CALDWELL, Idaho - Danielle Brazil arrived on the campus of The College of Idaho in 2001 as a student-athlete following a prep career at nearby Homedale High School.
 
After spending a season with the Coyote softball program, she decided to change course and focus on academics for the remainder of her time in college, giving her the opportunity to spend three years working as an intern within the athletic department.
 
A piece of advice from a mentor - then College of Idaho Athletic Director Marty Holly - led Brazil to pursue a career in the sports industry.
 
"He encouraged me while I was a student at the College to pursue this field and I later went on to get my Master's degree in athletic administration [from Idaho State] based on the advice from Marty," Brazil said.
 
That advice from Holly would lead Brazil - the former intern within his department - into a career in sports that would eventually come full circle with a return to her alma mater.
 
In 2017, Brazil was working for ESPN to help run events including The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and the Wooden Legacy. She would get a call to gauge her interest in potentially joining the athletic department at C of I from longtime women's basketball head coach Reagan Rossi, who had just been named the athletic director for the school.
 
The two first met in 2001 - Rossi's first year in charge of the women's basketball program - becoming more familiar with each other as a result of Brazil's internship within the athletic department during her final three years of school.
 
After keeping in contact over the years and running into each other at weddings and other functions, there was little doubt that reuniting would be a good fit.
 
"It was really something that I had always wanted and always thought would be one of my bucket list positions if I could pick," Brazil said.
 
A position would open shortly thereafter, making a return to campus a reality.
 
Brazil handles a variety of tasks in her role as associate athletic director, including athletic marketing, development and compliance within the program.
 
"Danielle has been a great addition to our department and to The College of Idaho," Rossi said. "She and her husband Chris are both alumni who have a love and passion for the College. Danielle has tremendous relationships with our sponsors and donors and has continued to grow that aspect of our department. Her previous experience with The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl as well as her time at Boise State, made her the perfect fit for the multiple roles of the associate athletic director. Her strengths are a great balance and asset for coaches, staff and teams. We are blessed to have her as a member of our YoteFam."
 
Chris graduated from C of I in the spring of 2001 and played soccer all four years he was in school, scoring eight goals with 12 assists in 75 career games.
 
With Danielle not arriving on campus until the fall of 2001, the two met in an unconventional manner.
 
"Chris was really good friends with then men's basketball head coach Mark Owen," Danielle said. "We actually met when I was helping them move, as Chris came over to help them move as well. That's how we met and the rest is history. It was definitely from a College of Idaho connection."
 
Continuing with the C of I connection, Danielle and Chris would eventually get married on campus by professor and friend Jim Fennell. To this day, the Brazil wedding remains one of the largest parties in campus history.
 
The two now have a pair of boys, Colin and Declan, who keep them busy in the Treasure Valley youth sports scene.
 
Prior to her return to C of I, Danielle started what would turn into a decade with The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and eventually ESPN.
 
She worked with a staff of three full-time employees at the start of her time at the bowl in 2007, including Executive Director Kevin McDonald. Brazil handled all of the team logistics, the stadium operations, the marketing of the game and the social media.
 
"Kevin and I really approached it as a team," Brazil said. "We sold all of the title sponsorships together, we sold all the major sponsorships together and we would go together to scout games. That was probably my highlight of my time at the bowl - getting to travel across the country and watch football games in person for my job. As a football junkie, that was something that I really felt like was the perfect job for me - getting to go watch these football games, talk to athletic directors and talk to conference commissioners about the potential of their team being in our bowl game and building those relationships with people."
 
Some of the coaches that she worked with during her time at the bowl included P.J. Fleck, James Franklin and Matt Campbell - who were all at earlier stops in their coaching journey before moving into their current roles at Minnesota, Penn State and Iowa State.
 
"To kind of see them transition and progress in their careers has been really cool," Brazil said.
 
In 2013, ESPN acquired The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In addition to all the work that she would still be putting in to making the bowl game possible, she would now also be running the Wooden Legacy basketball tournament in Anaheim, Calif.
 
Working those events on a national stage has given Brazil a unique perspective on what it takes to make it all possible.
 
"As a college basketball and football fan, you love to sit there and watch it on TV, but you never know what goes on behind the scenes. There's so much that has to go into the organization and details side of putting those events on. For me, a bucket list item was to work for the biggest sports entertainment company in the world. To be a Disney employee was really fun. The benefits that that provided for my family was one of those things that you can check off as being a pretty cool career opportunity."
 
There were plenty of memorable moments along the way as well, including in 2015 when Michigan State men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo won his 500th career game in a 99-68 defeat of Boston College in the Wooden Legacy.
 
"What was really cool was when Draymond Green of the Warriors comes into the facility totally unannounced to Cal State Fullerton - where the gym is smaller than our gym at C of I - and people are mobbing him," Brazil said. "We didn't have security in place really to manage the situation and he brings in this probably $100,000 Rolex to give to Coach Izzo and he wants to make a speech and present the watch and everything to him on the court after the game. It was one of those things where from a game operations perspective - when you are not anticipating something like that and it happens - you are adapting on the fly, and that was crazy."
 
As if the 500th win for Izzo wasn't enough, Denzel Valentine posted a triple-double with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the win for the Spartans. Valentine went on to be selected with the 14th pick in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls.
 
In sports, being ready to handle the unexpected is always something that you have to be ready for.
 
"There were eight teams, so you're managing everything from their travel, their logistics, their practices, their extracurricular activities and their food all the way to the back-end of the TV side, where you are working with the producers and the directors to make sure they had everything they needed," Brazil said. "It's a pretty crazy job for a three-day tournament that took a full year to plan."
 
Arizona, Boise State, Providence and Santa Clara were some of the other schools participating in the Wooden Legacy in 2015, resulting in big names in the basketball world like Magic Johnson and Chris Paul showing up to the games held at the Honda Center.
 
Having had the experience with ESPN and the bowl of working with some of the more notable names in sports while traveling all around the country, Brazil knew it was the right time to return to C of I when the opportunity came about.
 
"For me, coming back to the College was about working with all of the good people and getting to help student-athletes achieve their goals," Brazil said. "When you are on a specific event you really don't have a team that you can root for and try to help. Being at a school where I can really root for these individuals has really been just as rewarding as all of that other stuff for me."
 
Those individuals that she now works with on a daily basis since her return to campus are appreciative of her work.
 
"Our department is lucky to have someone that works as hard as Danielle to make our events and programs successful," said women's basketball head coach Janis Beal. "There are so many things she does behind the scenes and she doesn't get near the credit she should."
 
The strong relationships with Beal and other members of the campus community is part of what Brazil says is her favorite part of working at C of I.
 
"Going to work every day does not feel like going to work," Brazil said. "It feels like going to hang out with my friends and family, and that's really what brought me back to the College in the first place."
 
Beal, who recently finished her second season leading the women's basketball program, is thankful for how helpful Brazil has been with anything that has come up over the past couple of years.
 
"As coaches, we are always asking Danielle questions or needing assistance on a project, and she is always willing to help. In fact, I'm not sure how she gets everything done that gets thrown at her. She not only takes care of us coaches but is a big supporter of our athletes. Danielle is always there cheering them on, but more importantly, she cares about them as people away from athletics. Being fairly new to the College, I appreciate Danielle showing me what it means to be part of the YoteFam."