COACH DANI AQUINO
"My coaching philosophy is to educate first and implement immediately after. It's important to always stay humble and be open to learning new things - both as a player and a coach. It's imperative to understand that every athlete learns differently, and it's my job to translate my lessons into skill sets that they will absorb and retain. We work hard, we train hard, but we do it in an environment compromised of complete support, inclusivity and positivity.
CONTACT ME
Phone: 843-782- 8619
Email: coachaquino@sc.edu
My Story
Meet Coach Dani Aquino
Dani Aquino joined USC Salkehatchie in 2022 as the head volleyball coach. She is in her 15th year as a head coach with 24 consecutive seasons in both the sports of volleyball and lacrosse. She comes from a long history in sports; as a 5-season athlete in high school, she went on to earn a full scholarship to play Volleyball in Maine. After suffering a major injury, she left Maine and rehabbed her injury while attending her local community college for a year. She finished off her athletic eligibility on the Umass Boston Squad, earning herself the Team MVP, Player of the Year and All-Star Awards.
After earning her B.A. in Political Science, she began in the coaching world assisting her college coach before jumping into the club arena. While continuing to coach various ages in the travel world, she ran successful Division 1 high school programs for 8 years before taking the leap onto the Collegiate scene as the Assistant Coach for Stonehill College, a competitive D1 team battling in the NCAA Northeast Conference.
After relocating from Boston down to the Lowcountry with her wife and twin toddlers, Coach Aquino quickly found her footing in the Southern volleyball scene by coaching club for the Palmetto Strikers and soon after taking over the USC Salkehatchie program. She is excited about the future of Salk Volleyball; and in her first season alone, she tripled the wins over the previous year's program and doubled all earned points in every conference match over the previous 3 years. "