The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- May 10, 1999

Volunteer Effort

Casts of hundreds required to put on show at championships events

BY GARY T. BROWN
STAFF WRITER

They're taken for their love of the sport, they're taken for their dedication and commitment and they're taken for their experience. But the NCAA wants to make sure they're never taken for granted.

They're championships volunteers, the thousands of people on the fringe

of NCAA championships events whose job it is to serve, facilitate and administer without really being noticed.

They're bank executives, insurance salespeople, small business owners, lumber yard workers, retirees, college students, school administrators, independent contractors and grocers.

But on championship day, they sport the NCAA hat as proudly as the players.

"They're involved most often because they're giving back to a sport they love," said Lewis Gainey, assistant athletics director at the University of Georgia who this year was charged with coordinating a volunteer corps for the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. "And you have them coming out of the woodwork to offer to help."

For swimming and other team/

individual sports, the demand for volunteers is especially heavy. Gainey said his crew numbered between 100-125 volunteers who did anything from staffing hospitality suites to serving as lane officials, stroke judges and stopwatch timers.

In track and field, Herb Criner, who is directing this year's Division I men's and women's outdoor championships at Boise State University, estimates his staff will be 400 strong.

"And I've got a waiting list of about 250 more," said Criner, who also is Boise State's associate director of athletics.

Perhaps more amazing than the sheer numbers willing to serve is their ability to serve well. Many tasks performed by volunteers at championships impact the event directly, whether it's interpreting what constitutes a lane violation to preparing a long-jump landing area.

"These volunteers have to be very precision-like and accurate," Criner said. "They have to follow the rules to a 'T' because records are based on things being done step A, B and C.

"Most of them have to pass an exam in order to be certified. I've had people call me and say they'd be willing to do just about anything to be involved -- even raking the sand pit for the long jump and triple jump. Well guess what? Even those rakers have to be qualified, certified officials."

Labor of love

For the top officials positions, the NCAA hires and pays a handful

of experienced individuals at all championships events. Volunteers don't call balls and strikes at the College World Series, nor are they meet referees at swimming or track

championships. But those hired hands at least draw a paycheck -- volunteers draw only on their love of the sport.

"If we didn't have these folks, track and field would suffer greatly," Criner said. "There's no way we could pay for them like you might in basketball or football. In track, it's a handshake and a warm meal."

"It's usually a labor of love for the volunteers," said NCAA director of championships Dennis L. Poppe. "They're so dedicated to the sport that the chance for them to work with that sport's championship is their payment. They often even take vacation days from their jobs in order to serve."

Kathryn Morrissey, who is the event manager of Meeting & Event Design, a firm that helps coordinate the volunteer staff at the College World Series, said the challenge isn't in finding volunteers, but in having enough tasks to fill the requests.

"We have a College World Series hotline and we've had so many people who've called and said, 'You don't know me but I think this is such a great event and I want to be involved,' " she said.

Morrissey attributes the zest for assistance in part to the event's long-standing tradition at Omaha, Nebraska.

"The event wears a halo," she said. "You'd like to think that people in your hometown are nice year-round to strangers, but you hear these wonderful stories about what people do to go out of their way to be nice to someone who is here watching the games."

It takes all kinds

Herb Hames, a local Omaha volunteer who is the director of ticket sales for the College World Series, said his crew is as diverse as the people in the stands. His staff is charged with selling books of general-admission tickets every year, and the demand to sell is as high as the demand to buy.

He said one year he got a call out of the blue from a lumber yard salesman who just wanted to help.

"I asked him if he'd be interested in selling a few tickets," Hames said. "And he's turned out to be one of our top salesman over the last seven or eight years."

Hames said there is a certain camaraderie among ticket sellers -- and like in any other sales organization there's a certain pride in reaching an objective and also a certain ownership of territory.

"Some of our veterans have staked out different companies where they sell ticket books only to find that somebody new has come in and tried to take over," he said.

Morrissey said there are different levels of volunteers at the College World Series, ranging from ticket sales to participating-team ambassadors to courtesy car drivers. And the tasks are just as diverse, from working with teams to set up outreach visits to local hospitals, to scurrying back to a hotel to pick up a superstitious ballplayer's lucky shoes.

Gainey also spoke of the need to match the task with the volunteer. He said that's why having such a large volunteer pool from which to choose is so vital.

"You don't want someone manning the hospitality room who can't say 'no' diplomatically," he said.

But it's the volunteers saying "yes" in the first place that keeps the championships humming along. With only the incentive of being involved with a top-notch event as their payment, volunteers do whatever it takes to serve, including paying their own transportation and lodging.

Criner said there are occasional perks for his track volunteers, including a chance to work the Olympic Trials if they gain the right kind of experience.

"Having worked an NCAA championship looks good on a resume," he said.

But for most of the volunteers, it's the involvement, the love of the sport or event, and perhaps even a release from their daily lives that pays for their ticket.

"They're usually either a tremendous fan of a particular sport, a huge supporter of the host institution or people who just want to be part of an NCAA championship for the experience value," Poppe said. "It would be prohibitive for us to provide per diem, transportation and fees to all those required to conduct the event.

"But without the volunteers, you don't have an event."