Christina Spirou Day Has a Twin Sister & They Are the Daughters of a Basketball Coach - Facts about

Publish date: 2024-05-18

Ryan Day and Christina Spirou Day. | Source: Getty Images / Instagram.com/day.ryan

Christina Spirou Day is happily married to Ohio State University football coach Ryan Day with whom she shares three children, and her father was a football coach too.

Followers of college football know all about Ryan Day, the head coach of Ohio University's Ohio State Buckeyes. They may have noticed a petit blond cheering him on from the sidelines.

That lady is Ryan Day's wife, Christina Spirou Day, mother of his three children and best friend since they were six or seven years old, and she has been his biggest supporter and admirer ever since.

Ryan Day and his wife Christina at the Big 10 Championship game between the Wisconsin Badgers and Ohio State Buckeyes in 2019, in Indianapolis. | Source: Getty Images

Chistina, whom friends call Nina, attended the same high school as Ryan. Later, the two went to the same university, the University of New Hampshire, where he played football, and she studied communications.

After graduation, Ryan remained at the University of New Hampshire as a tight ends coach, and Christia joined Southern New Hampshire University as a faculty member, where she worked until 2012.

When Chistina's sister Kelly Spirou Burnett joins her to support Ryan at a football game, fans might think they are seeing double.

Ryan and Christina married in 2005 and have welcomed three children together: daughters Ourania and Grace and son Ryan Jr. Ourania is Christina's middle name, and their oldest child was named after her.

Christina Grew up in a Coach's Family

Being the wife of a high-profile college coach comes naturally to Christina, whose father is also a coach. Stan Spirou was the head coach for Southern New Hampshire University's men's basketball team and one of the most successful in the division's history.

Stan boasted 640 victories and eight conference championships before he retired from coaching in 2018 after 33 seasons. The coach is considered one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.

Christina's mother, Patricia, is a professor of marketing at SNHU's School of Business, where Christina also worked. Stan and Patricia have three children: daughters Christina and Kelly and son Chuck.

Ryan Day and His Wife Are Investing in Mental Health Research

Christina actively supports several charities and movements, including PinkForZink, in remembrance of New Hampshire teen Charlie Zink, who passed away at age 15 in 2021. Zink drowned but was later discovered to suffer from a heart condition.

Ryan and Christine are also advocates for children's mental health. The couple has donated $1 million to Ohio State University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health for research into mental health, emphasizing children and young adults.

The couple's interest in mental health issues has deeply personal roots. Ryan lost his father to suicide at a very young age, and Christina suffered from anxiety for years as a teenager. She revealed:

"I began experiencing anxiety in my teenage years. Looking back, I remember not understanding why I was feeling that way and not knowing how to communicate my feelings."

Christina and Ryan Grew up Together

Sports brought Ryan and Christina together when she was seven, and he was six years old. The two joined Little League and played on the same team. The friendship they forged in those early years united them for life.

The two were inseparable and attended the same high school, Manchester Central High Schoo. Christina graduated first and went to the University of New Hampshire, and Ryan followed. He played college ball for UNH and took up his first coaching position there.

Being close for all their lives made being apart from Ryan especially difficult for Christina. After the Big Ten reinstated the football season, Ryan was forced to live apart from his family during the Covid pandemic. Christina confessed:

"It hasn't been easy. Most of my life I could plan things and look ahead to the next week or the next three or four games. This year we've just literally lived hour by hour."

Christina and Ryan's Son Is Also an Athlete

Christina's father is into sports, and so is her husband Ryan, and it looks as if her son Ryan Jr., known as RJ, is following in their footsteps. In 2021, Ryan proudly shared a snap on Twitter and revealed that RJ had played a great basketball game, scored 17, and won the championship.

RJ is also into baseball and golf, so he may well follow dad and grandpa as a pro player or coach. Ryan and Christina's daughters, Ourania and Grace, are sometimes featured in mom and dad's posts, but very little is known about the two girls, except their names. The Days have kept their children's lives out of the public eye.

Christina Spirou Day's Twin Sister

When Chistina's sister Kelly Spirou Burnett joins her to support Ryan at a football game, fans might think they see double. Christina and Kelly are identical twins and attended the same high school and college.

Kelly has been happily married to Mike Burnett since 2011 and is the proud mom of three children: two boys and a girl. She lives with her family in New Hampshire but visits her sister often. Kelly and Christina are still close even though they live in different states.

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