Gateway grad Dayonne Nunley uses football experience to train aspiring athletes

Jul. 2—Dayonne Nunley majored in sports studies at Miami (Ohio) while performing as a standout cornerback for four seasons with the RedHawks football team.

A decade later, the Gateway graduate is incorporating much of what he learned in his collegiate course of study and also during his training to become a three-time All-Mid-American Conference first-team selection and later a professional player into work as a personal trainer and also a trainer of high school baseball and basketball athletes.

"That was always on the backburner," said Nunley, an independent contractor on the training side of things who also works in marketing for Zoll Medical in Monroeville.

"I am focusing on that a lot and trying to build my brand and my image.

"My personal-training clients want to be able to train like an athlete and move like an athlete. I remember a lot of what I did in preparing and maintaining for a season. I like to incorporate a lot of what I was taught and what worked for me. That goes for a lot of the work I do with the athletes I train, too. There are so many training styles and regimens, including agility and speed training. It's about what works best for the individual athlete to reach their goals."

Nunley, a 2010 Gateway graduate, remembers when he was the student preparing throughout the winter, spring and summer for the next high school football season.

Gateway went a combined 35-4 in Nunley's sophomore, junior and senior seasons. The Gators made it to Heinz Field all three seasons and finished as runners-up each time.

"It was a great time with my teammates and my friends. We accomplished a lot and won a lot of games. I also coached at Plum, Baldwin and Seton LaSalle, and with all those experiences, Friday nights are something special. It is so different from college and the pros. It's definitely an amazing feeling."

The two-time captain earned all-conference and all-state honors with Gateway, finished his high school career with 146 tackles and eight interceptions, and played in the Big 33 Classic before moving on to Miami (Ohio).

Nunley was an impact player right away for the RedHawks. He capped his true freshman season with MVP honors against Middle Tennessee State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. He returned an interception for a touchdown in Miami's 35-21 win.

Nunley finished his collegiate career with 13 interceptions.

"Miami was the best four years," Nunley said. "When I first got there, they expected me to play a few snaps on special teams. I took that so personally. I worked hard and ended up playing a lot. I just kept building on that to where we won the MAC title (7-1 record) and the bowl game. I got to see a lot, meet new people, and grow so much as a player and a person."

The next summer, Nunley got an opportunity with the hometown Steelers. He enjoyed a strong preseason, but a knee injury derailed his plans to stick with the team. He was released after the final preseason game.

"Growing up here and then getting picked up and putting on the uniform, it was amazing," he said. "All the love everyone showed, it was a special feeling. I was feeling good about what was happening, but then the injury bug hit, and it put me out."

While with the Steelers, Nunley got to know fellow RedHawk and Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger.

"We would be in the training room getting ready for practice or somewhere else, and we would talk about all the different places around campus and good places to eat, stuff like that," Nunley said.

"He would ask me about how things had changed up there with the campus and the changes to the football program. I had heard so much about him from the time he was there, and then to be on the same team was pretty cool. I had met him at school, so it wasn't the first time. But now, I was a colleague. It was nice to be able to sit down and pick his brain about the NFL."

While Nunley's opportunity with the Steelers didn't go the way he had hoped, he didn't give up on his dream of playing professionally.

After recovering from his knee injury, Nunley was on track to play for a pro league in Australia. But the league folded before his opportunity was realized.

He also had a chance to work with the Cleveland Gladiators Arena Football League team in 2016, and he played in the NFL's spring developmental league at Greenbriar Resort in White Sulpher Springs, W.Va., in 2017.

"We were there for six weeks," Nunley said. "There were practices and games. We got a chance to get on film and impress coaches."

That same year, he had hopes to join the Canadian Football League at a tryout in Tampa.

But injury issues stayed with Nunley in those years, and he wasn't able to make those goals a reality.

While attempting to keep going in football as a player, Nunley got the chance to see the sport from a different perspective.

He helped out at Plum in 2016 and then joined the new Baldwin staff, headed up by former Plum and Gateway assistant Loren Cooley, in 2017.

Nunley also coached at Seton LaSalle. He's not coaching this fall, but he's not ruled out a return to coaching in the future.

"It's definitely a different perspective and point of view," he said.

"I was on the field and in the press box. The press box is different as you are closer to the fans, so you act a little different than you would if you're on the field. It's more about teaching and sending that player out to hopefully do what you've taught them. It's a different feeling than you going out yourself and trying to make things happen. As a player, I can react to where the ball is and make a play on it. With coaching, it's about the trust and confidence you develop for the players."

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 724-226-4665, mlove@triblive.com or via Twitter .