Seventeen years worth of experience in various positions at the university and community college levels gave Daniel Huntley the leg-up.

Marshalltown Community College named Huntley its new Director of Athletics and Student Life this past week, MCC Provost Dr. Robin Lilienthal confirmed.

"What I think really led us to Dan is he has a wealth of athletic director experience that I feel really confidently will take Tiger athletics to the next level," said Lilienthal. "We were looking for somebody with a lot of experience in the athletic world and he also brings experience in student life ... and that was just as important to us.

"I'm really super-excited to have Dan start and I think he's really going to advance the program."

Huntley emerged from a small group of finalists, Lilienthal said, as the successor to Neil Hayhurst.

Hayhurst, who held the position from 2008-2011, left to take the same opportunity at Baton Rouge Community College prior to this school year. Hayhurst was an assistant men's basketball coach at MCC from 2005-08 prior to assuming the athletic director responsiblities vacated by Terri Craft because of health concerns.

Huntley has been the athletic director at Concordia University, a private four-year school in Austin, Texas, since 2008, and was the director of intercollegiate athletics at the University of Texas at Brownsville from 2005-08.

Brownsville successfully transitioned its athletic program from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) to full membership into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 2005.

Huntley officially takes over his new post at Marshalltown Community College on Jan. 4.

"We're going to see what we can do to make up the athletic department and to make the student-athletes' experiences be the best possible ones they can have," Lilienthal added.

Huntley is a Minnesota native who played collegiate hockey at St. Scholastica and coached the sport at Rainy River CC, Shattuck-St. Mary's prep school and Northland College.

He served as the sports information director and the assistant athletic director at Northland prior to leaving for Brownsville, Texas.