Donyale Canada
Donyale Canada joined the administrative team in August 2018. Currently she serves as the Chief Operations Officer/Compliance and Athletics Director providing administrative oversight and support to the Athletics, Facilities, Sports Medicine, IT, and Finance management teams/departments.
A veteran athletics administrator, Canada brings over twenty years of broad intercollegiate athletics administration experience at the NCAA Division I conference and campus levels to Legacy.
Before her move to Legacy, Donyale served as the Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance and the athletic department’s Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). Prior to arriving at TAMUCC she was the Associate Commissioner and SWA for the Southwestern Athletic Conference. There she oversaw the regular season administration, the event management for each of the league’s conference championships events, and as the staff liaison to the senior administrator governance body and select head coaches’ committees. Canada spent time as the Associate Commissioner and SWA for the Mid-American Conference (MAC) for six years. She also served as the Director of Sport Services at Conference USA and Assistant Commissioner for Championships at the Ohio Valley Conference.
Canada served at the university campus level as an Athletic Academic Certification Officer/Specialist at Texas A&M University. During her time as an Athletic Certification Officer, she monitored NCAA Student-Athlete Initial and Continuing Eligibility and was responsible for certifying the academic eligibility of 700 plus student-athletes for intercollegiate competition. She evaluated transcripts for incoming student-athletes and monitored academic progress towards degree for continuing student-athletes. She generated various reports for the NCAA, conference offices, athletic department, and academic deans. As the Director of Women’s Basketball Operations at Texas State University, she was primarily responsible for all team and staff recruiting travel arrangements, film exchange, and coordinating the recruiting process for prospective student-athletes and their families.
A native of Texas, Canada received her bachelor’s degree in Sport Management from Texas A&M University. While in College Station, she was a member of the women’s basketball and track and field teams. In 1994, her women’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA DI Regionals (“Sweet Sixteen) for the first time in Texas A&M history. She is a three-time NCAA DI Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field championships qualifier in 1995, 1996 and 1997. She is a 1993 Olympic Festival Gold medalist and All-Tournament team selection. Donyale is a founding board member of the Collegiate Event and Facilities Management Association (CEFMA) formed in 2008. Additionally, she is a 2007 graduate of the NCAA Leadership Institute for Minority Females, and a recipient of the WNBA President’s award in 2003.