Dunking Into the School Year with Daniels

When you Google the name “Erik Daniels” you might find a Wikipedia page that belongs to and tells the story of a former professional basketball player. But this can’t be the same Erik Daniels that works here in small-town Woodford County, can it?

Erik Daniels is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, but moved to Kentucky during the year 2000. While here, Daniels attended The University Of Kentucky for 4 years and graduated with the class of 2017.  During his time at UK, Daniels furthered his athletics career by playing college ball. Later on, Daniels went on to play professional ball for 12 years all around the world. which included over 20 different countries. He played 1 year in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings. After retiring his career in basketball, Daniels has been using his knowledge to coach girls basketball at a high school level.

Daniels is the “Pass Teacher.” His job consists of being assigned 8-10 kids that he monitors throughout the day. Daniels compares this to being a case manager. WCHS is Daniels’ first job as an official teacher, but in the past, he was a para-educator as an assistant teacher. Daniels decided to become a teacher because he wanted to coach at the high school level and teaching is a part of it. Daniels always wanted to be a teacher but found other things that interested him more.

Many teachers want their students to be able to grow and succeed. Teachers often leave a lesson or impact their students in some positive way. When asked what lesson he would like to leave his students with, Daniels said, “Take every opportunity and don’t take it for granted. My favorite quote is ‘Carpe Diem.'” Daniels favorite aspect of teaching is building relationships with students as he likes to get to know his students.