MVNU hosting area high school basketball tournament finals

Mount Vernon Nazarene University has been partnering with the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Central District Advisory Board for several years. This year, they upped the ante.

MVNU began hosting Central District final baseball games in 2018, then added volleyball a short time later. They’ve even hosted girls’ basketball tournament games in the past. But, this year, the school and the organization took a huge step with basketball and will host five nights of boys’ and girls’ district championship games.

“We hosted women’s basketball back in 2019. The dates just didn’t work out for us to do it again. This year, we reached out to the OHSAA concerning our venue. We were able to host five nights; 10 different district championship games,” said Paul McNeal, coordinator of development at MVNU.

The championship nights begin Friday, Feb. 27, with the girls’ Div. V finals at 6 and 8:15 p.m. The Div. VII girls’ finals will be Saturday, Feb. 28, at 1 and 3:15 p.m. The following week will be the boys’ turn with Div. II finals being held Thursday, March 5, at 6 and 8:15 p.m. The Div. IV finals will be Friday, March 6, at 6 and 8:15 p.m., and the Div. V finals will be Saturday, March 7, at 5 and 7:15 p.m.

McNeal said everyone at the university is behind this venture, from the administration to the game-day staff. It’s an opportunity for everyone involved with MVNU to showcase the college and its facilities to a wide area of central Ohio.

“It’s a great opportunity, whenever we host anything dealing with the OHSAA. No. 1, it’s a great partnership for us,” McNeal said. “No. 2, it’s a great opportunity for students, family members, as well as student athletes to get onto campus to view our facilities, and hopefully, for us to give them a great experience in the game setting for them to be able to go home and talk about MVNU.”

There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes for the university to host these games. MVNU coaches rescheduled games and practices; parking and campus safety issues had to be resolved; cleaning crews must be available before and after games; and the admissions department must be on board, helping with ideas and different things to distribute to the approximately 3,000 fans who will be in attendance during the 10 games.

Then, there is the actual game-day work.

McNeal and his staff have been known around the area as hosting one of the best college game-day experiences in the Crossroads League and around Ohio. It takes 15-20 people to run the show, doing everything from taking tickets to running the scoreboard to fan experiences to taking care of the players and coaches. They even supply the athletic trainers for the games.

“We try to treat our teams like royalty. We have colored nameplates on our doors. Opportunities for team photos with our backdrop. Opportunities for their student section to win prizes from our national championship drive partnerships,” McNeal said. “We want them to want to come to MVNU and try our best to make their experience the best it possibly can be. It’s great when you have a team here for a first year, go somewhere else, then come back and say we looked on the bracket and wanted to make sure we were coming to MVNU if we made it this far. That’s a real big feather in our game management and game experience crew.”

In the long run, hosting high school championship games is a great opportunity for MVNU to showcase its campus and facilities to area sports fans and maybe even potential future students. That’s something McNeal and the university just couldn’t pass up.

“We wanted to try to showcase our venues. Baseball, what a great facility we have. We’re revamping that as we speak. Ariel (Arena, the basketball venue) is a cornerstone for us and a cornerstone for our venues and buildings on campus. We want to try anything we can do to get people to see that and come to MVNU and see what great facilities and what great campus we have,” McNeal said. “We’re very thankful the OHSAA has allowed us this opportunity.”