The faces tell the story. The hustle to find a seat shows the enthusiasm. The cheering is contagious. The overall experience will leave a lasting impression.

For almost 7,000 students, it's a field trip to the opening game of the Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball tournament that has them jumping.

"We have our traditional field trips to museums and the zoo, but this one is special," said Mary Beth Payne, a third-grade teacher at Jesse Wharton School in Greensboro, North Carolina. "This is as excited as the kids have been all year."

More than 70 schools across the region, some as far away as a 90-minute drive, loaded students on school buses March 4 for a trip to the Greensboro Coliseum.

The day proved to be an awesome experience for the children, many of whom had never seen more than a small school gym.

"For some kids it's their first opportunity to see something that gives them a lot of hope," Payne said. "We try to tell them, 'This could be you out on the court, or as a cheerleader, or a coach, or an athletic trainer or an official.' There is so much potential out there for these kids to see."

The ACC-School Day Partnership Program has turned into more than just a field trip to the first game of the ACC women's basketball tournament. For the first time, the program has extended deep into the classroom for thousands of students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The recent education component is the brainchild of ACC Associate Commissioner Bernadette McGlade, who first began involving school-age children in women's basketball in the early 1990s while at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In 1993, McGlade teamed with Metro Atlanta public schools to form a curriculum that in part helped reward school attendance and good citizenship -- problems in the area at the time. The prize for 5,000 children was entrance into the practice day of the 1993 NCAA Women's Final Four.

More than a decade later, McGlade and the ACC developed a 24-person curriculum committee from the Guilford Country School System who wrote a 200-page curriculum centered on the ACC, basketball and women's sports.

The field trip is just icing on the cake.

"The way the teachers present it during the school year gets the build-up going," said Marti Sykes, a member of the Guilford County School Board. "When they do get into the arena they are so hyped it's just amazing. I've been to the coliseum quite a few times, but to hear the whole coliseum filled with children -- it's a level of excitement that's indescribable."

Payne and other teachers from each grade spent two days last summer drawing up age-appropriate and gender-neutral lesson plans for the new curriculum that can now be downloaded by any school in the state by going to www.learnnc.org.

There are lesson plans in character education, language arts, math and countless more subjects.

"As a teacher I'm always looking for high-interest-level lessons," said Payne, who was on the advisory board. "There are not too many kids who don't like sports. It makes addition, subtraction, multiplication and division a lot more fun.

"Sports can help define a child in so many ways," added Payne. "It's about character development, it's about developing good study skills, as well as teamwork. If you could see the kids and see how excited they are about what used to be regular lessons, it makes my job so much easier."

At last year's tournament, the program attracted about 4,000 students, but most had to rely on their own transportation or activity buses to get to the coliseum.

Under the new system, the approved curriculum allows for an official school field trip, which means students can be bused to the coliseum from their schools.

The whole day costs them about $4.

It has turned into a positive partnership for the ACC and the surrounding school districts.

"Incorporating an educational curriculum that can be used by students throughout the year is very rewarding for our office," said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. "Anyone who was at the first game last year knows the atmosphere was incredible. To have seen the growth of this program over just one year's time is tremendous."

"This program touches a lot of young people in a very positive way," McGlade said. "The students are learning something that's fun and they get a big bonus when they get to come to the coliseum to cheer and watch the players. You have no idea how many little minds you're impacting."

As part of the program, customers who have bought tickets to all tournament games give up their quality seats to the kids for one game of hollering and fun.

"Some people who purchased ticket books could scream and complain about it, but you only have to walk in to the Coliseum one time to see the type of impact it's having on the kids," McGlade said.

Word of the program is starting to trickle out and gain momentum across the state. Last year, the ACC fielded calls from numerous school districts after the tournament that didn't know the program existed.

"I am looking for the day when it gets too big," she said. "You know what, the Greensboro Coliseum is 23,000 seats -- let's fill it up."

This story was published originally at theacc.com and is reprinted here with permission.