Dec. 14, 2008
IT'S GAME DAY!!!!
The response to the Travel Blogs has been strong enough that I thought we'd try it for a big home game too. I will be honest - this may be nothing more than a big nerd-fest because I will be mainly reporting on the mundane, yet extensive duties of a sports information staff and those of the athletic department in general on game day. So, if you are interested in hearing how the counting of placards at press row goes - this is perfect for you. If not, you can probably check out now.
It is currently 10:38 AM and I am getting ready to leave for Hayman Center to start prepping for tonight's 7:00 PM tip-off. It may seem early but, in fact, the TV truck will be pulling up in about 30 minutes and our facilities director Phil Snead and his staff may already be there - as they were yesterday doing certain things that can be done a day in advance.
So, that's it. Check in throughout the day as sports info assistants Michelle Martin and Anthony Bonagura and myself will just drop random blog entries throughout the day to give you a little behind the scenes look into a home game day.
FIGHT ON EXPLORERS!
- Kale Beers and the Athletic Communications Staff
11:35 AM So, we are starting to set up the arena for the game. Currently Michelle is taking the stat terminals upstairs and firing them up. It is a universal fact among sports info directors that stat terminals are the love/hate tool of our trade. They are awesome when working but they are also ridiculously temperamental and fragile. Everytime you use them you sort of have to cross your fingers and hope that they will cooperate.
As expected Phil Snead has been here . . . since 7:30! There was small swim meet this morning that he came in to look after. Phil is a trooper!
Today will be hectic because the women's team had a full practice and both men's teams will have a shoot-around. You can't be in the gym when the opponent is shooting around - so that means about an hour or so where we can't work upstairs. Plus, this is a TV game and they always have some things to keep us busy.
1:53 PM Villanova is just about done shooting around. Our guys will take the court next. The TV crew is now fully here and we have given notes, credentials, countdown sheets and all other relevant material to them.
In fact, the ESPNU producer just walked in and told us that he is planning on running camera the whole day and doing a time-lapse sequence as the arena fills up over the course of the day. This should look pretty cool on tonight's national broadcast.
Jay Williams is doing the color for today's broadcast. He came to watch Nova's practice and will stay throughout the day so we are going to set him up with some DVD's of our games this season to help him pass the time.
2:53 PM Michelle here. Figured I would check in while I have a bit of a breather. I got here around noon and have been working on game-day preparations since then. Games like this are a lot of fun and a lot of work. With the media interest in this game, we've been busy for the majority of the week making sure that credentials are made, press row seats are assigned, and tags are made for those seats. We're lucky in Ath Comm to have several student-workers who help out tremendously with that. Of course we get those last minute requests, which has been what I've been working on this morning.
The other major thing that will need to be done soon is the stat terminal set-up that Kale mentioned earlier. We had those things running smoothly in the office the other day, so let's hope we can replicate that success!
Tonight's going to be awesome. As I was driving in this morning, I saw a few people out and about on Roosevelt Boulevard with their La Salle sweatshirts on (and some Villanova......). Looks like the city is excited for this one! Four hours and counting til game time. GO EXPLORERS!
6:10 PM Michelle again. Preparations have been going strong here at Gola Arena and we're less than one hour until tip-off. Fans are starting to pile in since the doors opened 10 minutes ago... I can hear the pounding of footsteps on the gym floor, which happens to be the ceiling of my office. The teams are suited up and warming up, the pep squads are getting warmed up, the mezzanine smells delicious with all the basketball game goodies, and everyone who has been running around since this morning is now looking sharp in suits and dresses as opposed to the sweats we had on before.
Don't forget to check out the game either on ESPNU or on the live stream on GoExplorers.com. And GO EXPLORERS!
10:48 PM
Well, that's a wrap. Disappointing loss for the Explorers on an otherwise very exciting night. I really can't explain how much of a rush it is to run these sorts of games. It's so much work and so many hours but when the building is full and we have run out of place to fit media - it really is a great time. We are going to see more and more of these sorts of nights at The Tom.
Much thanks goes out to the staff for helping on such a crazy day. It's not just the Ath Comm staff but the entire department really brings so much effort and dedication to the job to make a game like this - or any game for that matter - work. The ticket office, or operations, or any other department within Athletics could have the same sort of blog.
From a staffing standpoint games during break present a challenge because our great student-workers are not on campus. I want to thank my nephew Nick who came down from Emmaus to volunteer his time to help us out and much thanks to the Ath Comm staff and the couple of students (Chris Brase, Gabby and Steve Helm) who were able to stick around to work tonight.
Michelle is posting the last few pictures. Villanova has been sent the game file and boxscore - as has the A-10 and our next opponent Rider. The game story has been posted, stats are posted to the web along with the box score and we gave Coach G the Rider stats. Chris has posted highlights to GoExplorers.com and archived the game. Now, time to go home. Prep for Rider begins tomorrow morning.
Good night Explorers.
ATH COMM
