ORLANDO, Florida -- One of the most satisfying moments of the first Division II National Championships Festival occurred away from public view when alumni of the Division II Championships Committee gathered to celebrate the success of the inaugural festival.

The celebration included such Division II luminaries as former members Rita Castagna and Don Amiot, along with a number of others who played a role in conceiving and executing the festival.

Clint Bryant, the Augusta State University athletics director who chaired the Management Council when discussion about the event began, said he raised the idea after having seen successful conference festivals administered by the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the South Atlantic Conference. He worked with Barb Schroeder, Regis University (Colorado) athletics director and then chair of the Championships Committee, to explore the possibility. The baton then was handed to Lisa Colvin when she succeeded Schroeder as Championships Committee chair.

At the same time, former NCAA President Ced Dempsey was asking for at least one of the three divisions to experiment with a championships festival. In 2002, the Division II Management Council finally took the plunge.

Colvin -- now at the University of Louisiana, Monroe -- said the festival was more than she hoped it would be.

"I talked with a lot of athletes," she said, "and they were overwhelmed. They didn't think it would be this big. Their feeling seemed to be that we finally have a big-time national championship.

"As for me, I was personally overwhelmed. I never thought it would be this big and this positive."

-- David Pickle