Jackson Recap

I’ve decided to pause and write.

Jackson, Tenn.
The Recap

I arrived in Jackson on Tuesday, March 14. As I mentioned below there were meetings I did not know about and other events that made me excited for the week to come, but also nervous of how I’d handle it. However it was not a bad nervousness, but a good nervousness that makes me focus on ever detail, every time frame to make sure the job is done correctly and to the best I can do it.

Tuesday was another late night, the second in a string of four nights of nearly 3-4 hours of sleep each. Amazingly, I was alert and good each of those nights without drinking a drop of caffeine the whole week.

Monday’s opening game tipped off at 8:30, a tip that could have coincided with the firing of a starter pistol for the track meet I’d run as director of media ops at Oman Arena that week.

The final buzzer sounded for game one as the winning basket hit the nylon net for the University of the Cumberlands, as the Lady Patriots held off Cumberland University’s comeback from 15 points down to almost pull off the win.

The day followed with upsets from the No. 6 seeded teams in the tournament, while the No. 1 seeds won without much of a fight. The story was the same on Thursday for the second half of round two. An interesting statistic in the morning session of day one, was that the visiting team scored 67 points in each of the first three games, however Vanguard University’s strong defense put an end to that interesting, useless fact when they held Texas College to 46 points in the 1:45 game.

By Friday night, I’d written 24 game recaps and two round recaps for the NAIA Tournament. But for the first time, I’d get to sleep past 6:30 on the week. A nice feeling, when hours usually don’t come that early.

By this time I already had the opportunity to get to know the tournament photographer Willis, some of the Trevecca Nazarene players, Lubbock Christian players, reporters from local newspapers and get to know Steven and Allen better, two of the Sports Information Directors of other TranSouth Conference teams that were in the tournament.

Also, because I was one of the first to arrive and the last to leave each night, I received the chance to get to talk with Earnest, one of the maintenance men, or “E” as he preferred to be called.

I slept in Saturday then went to the arena to set up for the quarterfinals. Vanguard opened by holding off a University of the Cumberlands’ attack that almost upset the No. 1 team in the nation, followed by sixth-seeded Lubbock Christian knocking off No. 1 seed Trevecca Nazarene, then The Master’s College tying the game with a last tenth of a second shot by Jessica Seyler to send the game with Freed-Hardeman University to overtime, before winning to knock-off the No. 1 seeded Lady Lions. The night cap was the defending national champions, Union University, beating Oklahoma City in a rematch of last year’s title game, to advance to the “Fab Four”

The next day I hosted the Fab Four Press Conference at the Doubletree Hotel. I was tempted to play Beatles music, but decided not to.

The session lasted nearly two hours, possibly way too long, but it was a good two hours. Stories came out in the press conference that may not have come out otherwise, as we heard from Jessica Seyler and how she came back from what she thought was a career-ending injury to play in the last 12 games of the season. Also, The Master’s Grace Tapely shared what it was like to be sitting on the bench for the tournament after being injured in the opening minutes of the tournament, and having to give up her starting role to a freshman.

I’m not nearly doing justice to the stories here, but they were stories that had the reporters and others in attendance engaged in what was being said. I was disappointed that not more was printed the next day, but it was rewarding to see a small story on Seyler in the Jackson Sun, that most likely would not have been there had it not been for her speaking at the press conference.

Jessica was a source of encouragement for myself over the next few days, just reflecting on her story and the short moments of conversation she and I had off the court. Her ability to look past the troubles that she was going through and keep the positive attitude, plus being the one to go ask the trainer and others what she could do to help them after she played her final game on Monday night was good to watch.

As Barry Faulkner from the Daily Pilot in California kept telling me, that’s a girl that a movie script could be written about.

Anyway, we went on to see Lubbock Christian stay alive into the championship game as this year’s Cinderella, and the lowest seeded team to ever make the championship.

LCU dominated early, but Union countered with offensive and defensive tactics they had not used all year to get past LCU and dominate the last 25 minutes of play, although, LCU made a late run to pull within six.

So, Cinderella fell short of wearing the crown home, as the defending champions won their third title in nine years.

I’ve been asked many times how the tournament went, was it fun, was it worth while.

It went well, and “Yes” to the other two questions.

Did it pass the test to say that sports media relations in where I am supposed to spend my career? I don’t know.

What I do know is that I enjoy telling the story. I enjoyed the moments of helping make the ones who go unnoticed hopefully feel appreciated. I enjoyed the chance to encourage others to tell the story and help them do so.

“Director of Media Opperations” – sounds big and official, doesn’t it?

Although, I think the roll was more like Media Servant... at least that’s what I’d prefer my work on the week to be remember as by the media that was there.

Were there complaints? Yes. Some expected there to be more phone access or more structure for certain aspects. But, those people were only there for one night, so it didn’t matter past that. And after Monday, I think things went well. We still had glitches and problems, but we worked to make sure that things were still able to be done and deadlines met.

It was a good week, but aside from the Championship feeling of standing in the tunnel before the title game and looking up at all the banners, the weekend was more about service than sports.

It was rewarding to help others serve their school or the NAIA. We’ll see lies ahead.

All 34 recaps can be found on the Championship Website.