Meet A City Of Dalton Employee: Brandon Sane, DPRD Program & Athletic Coordinator

Wednesday, August 16th, 2023

The City of Dalton is special because of the people who work hard every day to make it the best place to live, work, and play in Georgia. The City is proud of the men and women working to serve our residents. This article continues a series of profiles we'll be running from time to time to spotlight the special people who are making a difference in our city. 

Brandon Sane handles marketing for the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department and also serves as a program and athletic coordinator. In that role he helps to oversee sports and leauges in the department and he also helps to coach some of the department's sports teams. A Dalton native, Sane grew up playing sports with Dalton Parks and Rec and those memories made him want to be a part of the department professionally. 

Here's a Q&A with Sane about his work with the DPRD. 

How long have you been with the DPRD?

Full-time, this is my tenth year. And then back during high school I worked part time with maintenance and athletics during the summer.

And you were born and raised here in Dalton?

Yes, I was.

What attracted you to working with the DRPD?

I kind of always wanted to do it. I mean, I grew up at Dalton Parks doing Dalton Parks, playing baseball, football, basketball. I’ve always loved Dalton Parks and I have always wanted to come back and give back to the community and make sure that kids now have the same great memories that I had of Dalton Parks.

And what were some of those memories that stand out?

Pretty much half of my life was spent at Al Rollins Park playing baseball. Playing baseball and football with my friends and also making new friends through it. I had some great coaches growing up. Just playing ball and everything here.

What are some of the lessons that you see kids learning on the ball field or maybe that you learned on the ball field that make the work worthwhile?

Probably teamwork would be #1. Pulling together towards a goal. Teamwork would be the #1 thing. Sports teach you so many life lessons. From winning and losing and how to work to get better, and how to handle adversity and things like that. Sports are a great teacher of life lessons.

Given that you’ve been working here full time for ten years and your association with the department goes back beyond that, you’ve probably seen some athletes grow up in the system, what’s that experience like?

I’ve actually got some guys who I coached here at DPRD who now have kids playing here, so I’m coaching my own kids with their kids. It’s a crazy feeling. I actually coached (DPRD superintendent) Will (Chappell) here, so that should tell you how long I’ve been doing it.

So with that, you’ve seen kids rise through the program and reach the high school teams and maybe even play beyond that. What kind of feeling of satisfaction does that give you?

It’s great. Like, with my brother’s group, I’ve watched them grow up all the way through Dalton Parks and I was able to help coach, I was an assistant at the high school when they were all coming through and it’s just great seeing that and now they’re all getting married and having kids and their kids are coming back to play. It’s just a big cycle that we love to see keep going.

What’s the best part about the job here?

Being able to give back to our community and make sure those kids have somewhere to go and have great memories of this place how we do, and also my work family. I call them my work family because we are like a family. There’s a lot of tradition in our department and it means a lot to everyone who works here to be there for our community and give them as many opportunities to make our city the best place to live, work, and play.

What are some things about DPRD that our residents might not know that you think are cool?

You know, I think people don’t know exactly what all that we do. How many parks we have, a lot of the things we offer that they might not realize that we offer. The things behind the scenes whether it’s helping out school teams with practice facilities or anything like that, I don’t think a lot of people realize what all we do.

I’m sure it’s not an easy job with everything you’re called on to do, but it sounds like it’s a rewarding job.

It is. It is long hours and on the athletics side it’s a lot of time away from your family but it is enjoyable to be able to see everyone out and the kids playing and the parents cheering them on in a positive environment.