What Daniel Bost lacks in certainty right now, he makes up in opportunity.
The Hartnell basketball guard will not know exactly where he’s headed next when he receives his associate degree in business administration on May 29, but he definitely has options.
That is due to both Bost’s academic achievement and his success as a guard on the Hartnell men’s basketball team, having completed his second season this spring as the Panthers’ leader in average points per game, at 15.9.
Following graduation from Salinas High School in 2017, he spent one year at a prep academy in Tempe, Ariz., which allowed him to retain his full college athletic eligibility when he joined Hartnell in 2018.
The Seaside native said he has an offer to attend and compete in Canada at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., and is awaiting potential NCAA Division II offers from William Jessup University, a private school in Rocklin, Calif., and Adams State University in Alamosa, Colo. He also has drawn interest from Dean College, a private Division III school near Boston, Mass.
A number of factors will weigh in the outcome, but Bost hopes to nail something down by mid-June, and he has a strong chance at receiving a full-tuition scholarship for his final two years of undergraduate study.
Bost, son of Daniel and Charisse Bost, opted for all-online classes this past fall, so he was accustomed to online learning by the time COVID-19 forced all students to do the same in late March. Throughout his two years at Hartnell, he experienced the frenetic pace of a student-athlete ― juggling classes, studies, athletic training, practices and games.
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Bost said. “For basketball we had a lot of morning workouts at 6 a.m., we got to the weight room, and after that I’d have have English, then tutor in English and stuff like that, and then we have practice and then I have my classes. So it was about finding time management to do homework. That was probably the hardest thing.”
One of his off-the-court accomplishments was changing from a student who struggled with writing to one who helped other students with writing in the Panther Learning Lab. He credits English instructor Molly Wilson in particular for helping him write more clearly and concisely.
Among other Hartnell memories Bost will carry with him are the “fun environment” he enjoyed with fellow student-athletes in the training room and playing for cheering fans in the Hartnell Gymnasium.
“Every now and then a whole bunch of people show up,” he said, “and it’s fun.”