Former Tiger All-American Emily (Loeffler) Daum ‘09 will be in her 12th year as head coach of the Trinity men’s and women’s cross country teams during the 2025 fall season. Coach Daum also serves as an assistant coach of Trinity’s track & field teams, focusing on distance runners.
In the fall of 2024, both men’s and women’s cross country teams placed second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship. This year, the Tigers produced six All-SCAC runners. Freshman Charlotte Martin was named SCAC Newcomer of the Year. With that, both teams were slated to compete in the NCAA Region 10 Championships. The men’s team finished 8th overall while the women finished 8th. Gianna Keena and Charlotte Martin earned USTFCCCA All-Region honors. Senior Will Salony earned All-Region honors and was also selected to the NCAA III Cross Country championships and finished in 64th.
Under Coach Daum's leadership, the Tiger XC program has won six SCAC championships and one regional championship. She has also produced 13 individual NCAA Championship qualifiers and one team qualification. Her achievements include coaching two All-Americans, 114 All-SCAC runners, five SCAC Runners of the Year, and seven SCAC Freshmen of the Year. Additionally, Coach Daum has been named SCAC Coach of the Year six times.
In the 2017 season, Coach Daum’s teams were exceptional. At the SCAC Championships, the men's team achieved a remarkable feat by placing all their runners in the top 10 and winning the conference title. On the women's side, Laura Taylor and Molly McCullough finished first and second, leading the team to a first-place finish. In the regional championships, the men secured fifth place, while the women won their fifth regional title. The Tiger women then earned an automatic bid to the NCAA III Championships, where they finished 16th. Molly McCullough was honored as the third All-American cross country runner with her 38th-place finish. Laura Taylor was named SCAC Runner of the Year, and Coach Daum received both the SCAC Coach of the Year and USTFCCCA Region 10 Coach of the Year awards.
Coach Daum had been an assistant cross country coach for the previous two seasons before taking over as head coach in July 2014. Prior to the Trinity women’s 20th-place finish at the 2013 NCAA Championships, the Tigers won the South/Southeast Regional for the second consecutive occasion.
The talented Coach Daum sparked Trinity cross country to its highest finish in program history. The Tigers placed sixth at the 2008 NCAA Championships, as Coach Daum finished 17th individually, the second-best performance in Trinity’s record books. For Daum's historic efforts as a student-athlete, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference named her to the SCAC 30th Anniversary Cross Country and Track & Field team during the 2020-21 cycle in commemoration of the league's current iteration which originated in 1991.
As a student-athlete, Coach Daum became Trinity’s first All-American in cross country. During her collegiate career, Coach Daum was a four-time All-American in cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field. She was a two-time SCAC Runner of the Year in both cross country and track & field. Coach Daum is Trinity’s outdoor track & field record-holder in the 1,500 meters, 3,000 meters; and 3,000-meter steeplechase, as well as the indoor 3,000 meters. She is ranked second in the 6k and third in the 5k cross country times. Some of Coach Emily Daum’s personal-best times on the track include a mark of 16:33 in the 5,000 meters, a 9:41 in the 3,000 meters, and a 4:34 in the 1,500 meters.
In 2009, Coach Daum was the recipient of the NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women’s Internship Grant Program, which led to a two-year appointment as Coordinator of Marketing and Promotions in Trinity’s Department of Athletics. She also served as the assistant to both the Director of Athletics and Sports Information Director.
Coach Daum earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Trinity in May 2009, with concentrations in marketing and management, along with a minor in physical education. Emily also earned a master’s degree in kinesiology in May 2011 from Texas A&M University-San Antonio. That same month, the former Emily Loeffler married Jeremy Daum ‘08, who was a Trinity cross country standout. The couple welcomed their daughter, Emma, in March 2015. Their son, Ethan, was born in June 2017, and they welcomed Olivia to their family in May of 2020. They most recently welcomed Noah into the world in June of 2022.
