By Matt Schabert, Morehead State Athletic Media RelationsMOREHEAD, Ky. —Danielle Durjan has joined head coach Cayla Petree‘s Women’s Basketball staff at Morehead State.
Durjan signs on with the MSU program after serving the past three seasons at the Community College of Baltimore County (Md.) – Essex. In her stint with CCBC Essex, she helped accumulate a 65-3 overall record, which included a NJCAA D2 record-breaking 53-game win streak and an undefeated record against conference opponents (32-0). She was under the mentorship of Mike Seney, who is the current head coach at the institution.
In her 2021-22 season with the Knights, Durjan was promoted to Associate Head Coach in which her duties included recruiting, developing game scouting reports, facilitating daily practice plans and ideologies, contributing offensive schemes to the team’s playbook, focusing on player academic success, and running social media accounts. Durjan also assisted in player development, specifically with the guards. Durjan worked on ball handling, shooting, and overall game IQ.
Some of the players Durjan worked with were current NJCAA D2 All-American guards Kasey Gagan, Mya Moye, Lyric Swann, and Patricia Anumgba. Durjan’s contributions to her team helped them reach the Final Four in the NJCAA national tournament, as well as a Region XX championship and Maryland JUCO Conference championship. Her Knights also finished the season ranked third in the nation.
In the 2020-21 season with the Knights, Durjan was promoted to recruiting coordinator, Unfortunately the season was canceled due to CoVID-19, but Durjan assisted in bringing in the most highly-ranked recruiting class in program history with six Division I transfers.
Durjan’s first season with the Knights was in the fall of 2019 right after she had just finished her collegiate playing career at Towson. The CCBC Essex Knights did not have a women’s basketball program in 15 years prior to Durjan and the staff’s arrival, but the Knights finished 30-2 and won both the Maryland JUCO Conference and Region XX titles. They were granted an automatic bid into the NJCAA National Tournament.
Durjan was a four-year collegiate women’s basketball student-athlete, spending one season at Sacred Heart (2015-16), one at Harford Community College (Md.) (2016-17), and finishing her playing career at Towson (2017-18 and 2018-19).
At Harford, Durjan helped the Fighting Owls to a 29-4 record, a conference and regional championship, while reaching the round of 16 at the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. That same season, Durjan earned NJCAA All-America honors.
Durjan also helped the Towson Tigers to their first conference championship and first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament in school history in 2018-19. She finished there with 434 career points, 76 steals, 191 rebounds and shot 79 percent from the free throw line.
She was senior captain for the CAA Champions and graduated from Towson with a Bachelor’s Degree in communication studies. Durjan attended Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg, Md., where she was a three-year captain, Washington Post All-Met team, and scored more than 1,200 points to average 21 points per game.