Rising Stars: Meet Jaime DeJoseph

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaime DeJoseph. 

Jaime, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
After graduating high school in 2002, I began working part-time at a local camp called Chapel Rock in the kitchen. In my ten years at Chapel Rock, I worked my way up from part-time kitchen staff to Assistant Kitchen Manager and even Interim Kitchen Manager. In 2011, after watching my youngest sister go across the World to Cambodia on an extended Missions Trip, I decided I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life. In October of that year, I decided to go back to school at Grand Canyon University. My work background had always been in food service, so at first, I struggled to decide on an area of Study. My Admissions Counselor prompted me to think about the things that I love doing and being a part of in order to help get me thinking about a major. I’ve loved watching and playing sports since I was a very young child and was curious how I could incorporate that love and passion into a career. After expressing that, my Admissions Counselor suggested Sports Management as my area of Study. To this day, this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. With my only work experience being in the foodservice industry, I knew I needed to start thinking about getting more experience within Sports Management. After graduating in April 2015, I approached Ryan, the Sports Director at the Prescott YMCA, and asked if I could do an internship within the Sports Department. He agreed to this and I began my internship. After about nine months in the internship, Ryan asked me to come on as the Assistant Sports Director. From December 2015 to February 2018, I continued in this role as well as working at the camp and later at a local café. In February 2018, I was officially hired as the Prescott YMCA Sports Director. I’m so grateful to Ryan for giving me the opportunity to work with him, showing me everything that went along with the job, and helping me to be successful in this position. In May of this year, I was given the opportunity to become the Race Director for our annual Whiskey Row Marathon here at the YMCA. I have gained so much valuable knowledge since being in this position and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I love being a part of this community, working with kids and families, and putting together programs that promote a healthy love of sports. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not always been a smooth road. In October of 2007, I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer and underwent surgery and Radioactive Iodine treatment. The cancer then returned, but this time it was in my chest and ribs. Surgery wasn’t an option for the placement of the cancer, so I underwent another round of Radioactive Iodine Treatment. Thankfully, I am now ten years cancer-free! Another struggle along the way would be working through the Covid shutdowns during 2020. Our YMCA was shut down the first time in March 2020 and most of our staff was laid off due to our facility being closed. All our programs came to a halt, and I was faced with not having any sports programs to run. Towards the end of March, we decided to open our Child Care Facility back up for all our Frontline Workers and I was asked to be one of our Emergency Child Care teachers. I choose to stay on as a teacher and spent March-September working in our Emergency Child Care program. In September, I was able to run our Youth Flag Football Programs with guidelines in place to make sure we were being as safe as possible while still giving the kids in our community a safe place to come play and enjoy sports again. In December, I was moved back into Child Care to help with our Distance Learning Program and stayed there until February when I was able to kick off our Youth Basketball Program. It was a difficult time not to be able to safely provide an outlet for kids to enjoy the sports programs they had grown to love and depend on throughout their year. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My official title at the Prescot YMCA is Sports Director and Race Director-Whiskey Row Marathon. I am responsible for implementing and facilitating all our Sports Programs here at the YMCA for the youth within our community. We offer a variety of youth leagues such as Basketball, Flag Football, Volleyball, Itty-Bitty Sports, and Summer Sports Camps. We also run an Adult 3 on 3 Basketball League each fall for the adults in our community. Recently I was named Race Director for our Whiskey Row Marathon, which is our annual race that features a Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k, 5k & .3 Mile Family Dash. The Whiskey Row Marathon is our biggest Fundraising event where every dollar brought in from that race goes directly into our Scholarship Fund. This allows us to offer scholarships and further financial help to families who cannot afford the youth sports programs. We love being able to help kids develop their skills in a safe and encouraging environment. Being able to help kids discover and fall in love with a new sport is one of the best parts of my job and I’m so grateful that this is the life I get to lead. 

What do you like and dislike about the city?
I live in Prescott, Arizona which is about 90 miles away from Phoenix. I was born and raised in this town and Prescott is a great town to live in for all ages. Prescott has a very small town, friendly feel to it while having the advantages of big city with restaurants, hospitals, shopping, etc. Prescott is a great place to live, and it has so much natural beauty. Prescott has so many amazing trails around our city. You can do a new one every weekend and still probably miss a trail. One of the best parts of living in Prescott is the Holidays. Prescott is Arizona’s Christmas City and I love that time of the year when we have the Christmas Parade and Courthouse Lighting. It is a great feeling to drive downtown and see the Courthouse all lit up during Christmas. It gives you a feeling of hope no matter what you have going on in your life. 

Contact Info:

• Email: jaime.dejoseph
• Website: prescottymca.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prescottymcasports
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prescottymcasports