The recipient of the inaugural 2017 Gatorade CSCCa Young Achievement Award is Daniel Kant-Hull, Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Marquette University. Coach Kant-Hull was nominated by both Coach Bill Maxwell, Director of Olympic Strength and Conditioning at the University of Iowa and Coach Todd Smith, Director of Sports Performance at Marquette University.
Nomination Letter for Daniel from Coach Smith
As an up and coming strength and conditioning coach, Daniel Kant-Hull has profoundly impacted Marquette Athletics in his 2 years here.
Dan taught himself how to use sports technology to monitor players as the Performance Analyst Intern for the Cleveland Browns. We hired Dan to implement and coordinate the player tracking systems we have in place at Marquette University. He has educated the performance staff on player load tracking, which has allowed Marquette to have a competitive advantage through not only it's use, but understanding and exercise prescription using data analytics. He is my main resource when it comes to all things technology. Kant-Hull is also directly responsible for track and field, men's golf, and women's tennis.
Dan also works with academic departments on campus at Marquette to create and enhance the services provided to the student-athletes. These include: working with the computer engineering department to create a neural network that will assess athlete training variables; working with the biomedical engineering department on the creation of new sensors that can more accurately and less invasively measure what is happening in the body; and working with the biomechanics department to better assess athlete movement patterns and provide training that meets the student-athletes' specific needs. The addition of Dan has helped integrate athletics and academics on campus here at Marquette.
He earned a Bachelor's degree from Carroll University in Exercise Science with a Sports Nutrition Minor, a Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse in Exercise and Sports Science: Human Performance, and is currently working on a PhD from Concordia University - Chicago in Leadership Health & Human Performance. He has strived to stay on the cutting edge of science and research and his quest for knowledge gives him a wide knowledge base.
Most importantly, Dan has focused on the development of people and relationships. He is an indispensable member of the Sports Performance Staff at Marquette. For him, it has always been about the athletes that he works with and the relationships that they built together to create a championship mindset. He truly values the lifelong impact coaches have.
Nomination Letter for Daniel from Coach Maxwell
I am writing to recommend Daniel Kant-Hull for the Gatorade/CSCCa Young Achievement Award. Daniel served as a volunteer intern within our strength and conditioning department during the 2012-13 academic year and elevated his career to Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Marquette University. Our interns typically work 20-40 hours per week with Daniel exceeding that amount by putting in 50-60 hours in addition to the many hours he spent researching topics related to our field.
Our athletic department made a bigger commitment to the strength and conditioning program for Olympic Sports in 2011. The strength and conditioning department started an initiative to monitor internal response of training along with external response for guiding program design. This required much research from staff on best technologies and practices. Our department moved forward with Omegawave, Gymaware and Tensiomyography. Daniel researched these areas at great length and was very inquisitive with our staff. This assisted my learning greatly. He also assisted me with developing a Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Model to be utilized with our men's basketball team. I still use the model to correlate with our Catapult GPS Technology. Catapult is expensive and not practical for every member of the team; however, RPE does provide an affordable method to calculate training load while being validated with Catapult. Daniel continues to evolve with Catapult and speaks at the NBA User and NFL User Conferences.
Daniel is currently pursuing a PhD in Health and Human Performance. His thirst for knowledge is a great characteristic; however, one of his best traits is an eternally optimistic view for success. He constantly searches for methods to improve his situation and has an expectation that it will occur. One must have vision before great things can happen. Daniel found creative methods to supply his student-athletes with technologies that his department could not afford during his tenure at Tulane as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He finds a way to get things done which is an extremely valuable trait in this field. This bolsters confidence with everyone who meets Daniel. His commitment to learning and work ethic make him an excellent candidate for the Gatorade/CSCCa Young Achievement Award.
