Sports
Monday, February 16, 2015
www.NorthernStar.info/Sports H @NSSports H 815-753-9637
11
Basketball attendance increases White, NIU draw fans to basketball with promotions Steve Shonder Staff Writer T @NSSportsShonder
DeKalb | Morris White, assistant athletic director for marketing and game experience, is hoping free trips to Hawaii, promotional giveaways and charitable donations will bring more students to men’s and women’s basketball games at the Convocation Center. White, who’s Morris White in his first year Assistant athletic at NIU, has seen director for marketing and progress in atgame experience tendance, and he and his staff are attempting to find ways to enhance the game-day experience and get students to the games. White has focused on helping to create a more energetic atmosphere with in-game promotions and having the band play in the student section while trying to draw more students in through field marketing and promotional giveaways.
Q: At the halfway point of the basketball season, how would you grade yourself on how you’ve done? A: I think what I would have to do is … grade our team because there’s nothing that I can accomplish without my graduate assistants, my assistant director and my student interns. From a promotional standpoint and game experience standpoint, right now halfway through the basketball season I would grade us at about a ‘B’ or a ‘B-plus.’ More students are starting to trickle in and come to games, and our efforts have increased. We’re starting to see a direct result of that. Q: How do you deal with attracting students, fighting their apathy? A: One of the things that we do every week, and what we’ve been doing more recently, is my team goes out and distributes … handbills. They cut them and they go to the residence halls. They go to a lot of the campus buildings and catch students on campus, catch them coming out of class to encourage them to come to the games. Other things we do: We utilize what we call our ‘A’ frames. We have our signage that we put out and that we put out throughout the course of
Alexandra Meyer | Northern Star File Photo
Junior guard Travon Baker (5) plays in a Feb. 7 game against Bowling Green at the Convocation Center. Morris White, assistant athletic director for marketing and game experience, is hoping an enhanced game-day experience will lure more students to men’s and women’s basketball games.
the year, promoting games, as well. We focus on those high-traffic areas. Earlier this year we began promoting basketball at some of the fall sports last semester. We put it right outside the [Chick Evans] Field House because there’s a lot of students that walk up and down Lucinda. We’ve attended meetings, so we’ve gone to hall councils meetings this year. We’ve also gone to meeting for [Interfraternity Council] and National Pan-Hellenic, as well. We’ve just tried to get that in front of the students. We’ve sent a number of emails to student leaders, working with the Student Association and [Student Involvement and Leadership Development]. Just making sure that, for as much as we possibly can, students are aware of what’s going on.
reason, we have to be creative and unique in our approach to our women’s games. Nonetheless, we still promote them as much as we possibly can if not more than we do for the men’s.
Q: Do you feel like you have a little more difficulty getting people out to the women’s basketball games? A: The unique thing about college sports is that you can never tell what the season is going to tell until it actually starts. For us, it’s not so much difficult as much as it is different. The women’s basketball game is a lot different than the men’s game. For that
Q: How do you think promotions have helped? A: The one we know is students like free stuff. Although we try to provide as much free things and items as we possibly can for the students, the thing that we focus on as well is the fun aspect of it, the environment, the engagement pace to it. I think that our promotions and our giveaways have been great throughout
“
The women’s basketball game is a lot different than the men’s game. For that reason, we have to be creative and unique in our approach to our women’s games. Nonetheless, we still promote them as much as we possibly can if not more than we do for the men’s.” Morris White Assistant athletic director for marketing and game experience
the course of the basketball season. We’ve been giving away an opportunity to win a week’s stay in Hawaii. We’re also taking care of — the students’ that win — their airfare to Hawaii at the end of the semester here. We’ve had DJ Toxic in the student section at our games … which has been tremendous for us; that only enhances it, as well. We’ve had residence hall challenges. We try to get them involved and ask them to come out in full force to show their support and represent, as well. I think that in-game promotions we try to make them fun and exciting and just keep things fun because the one thing we realize is there’s a lot of different activities students can participate in, so we want to make sure that you feel bad when you miss a Huskie athletic event, whether it’s soccer or basketball or football. We want [to] provide such an environment that you have no choice but to want to go because you never know what kind of cool things we’re going to be doing.
Basketball attendance Men’s Women’s
2013-14 1,012 401
2014-15 1,161 572
giveaway, and we have a very cool premium giveaway that students are going to be really excited about on Feb. 28 when we have our blackout game. There’s an item that we have under our sleeves that, literally, students will want to be there for. The other thing that I want students to know, especially for our Greek community, for everyone that’s in a fraternity or sorority — I told them because I know how important their philanthropies are — that when they come to games and they’re wearing their letters and filling up the student section, is that I will personally write a check to the organization that best represents at the remaining men’s and women’s basketball games. I will personally write a check to their philanthropy. I think a lot of the organizations Q: What sort of plans do you are excited about that, and I hope they have for the future in basketball? take advantage of the opportunity. A: For basketball, we’ll continue to push hard on our Hawaii trip Read Online | bit.ly/19mjPdN
Gymnastics ties school scoring record in win Steve Shonder Staff Writer T @NSSportsShonder
DeKalb | Gymnastics (7-2, 3-1 MAC) hit its season-high score, 194.475, Friday before tying the program’s all-time high score, 196.65, Sunday. Friday, the Huskies finished second — behind the Iowa State Cyclones, 194.95, but ahead of the Yale Bulldogs, 190.75 — at Navy Pier as a part of the IGI Chicago Style Meet. Sunday, the Huskies beat out the
Bowling Green Falcons, 195.2, and the Huskies scored 48.975 on bars. the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves, NIU also tied its season-high 190.925, at the Convocation Center. score on vault with 48.65 Friday before topping that on Sunday How it happened with 48.95. Sunday’s vault score is The Huskies have turned bars, tied for second on NIU’s all-time which was one of their weak- list. Sophomore Megan Greenfield est events at the beginning of the placed second on vault with 9.85, season, into their strongest event. which is her career best. Friday, NIU scored 48.95, a seasonThe Huskies’ floor exercise, 49.075, high. Freshman Ashley Potts took Sunday continued their run of strong second in the event with a 9.825, performances in the event. The top while junior Lauren Africano placed five scorers hit 9.75 or higher. Sophothird with a 9.8. At Sunday’s meet, more Brittany Wenzel was tied for
first in the event with the Seawolves’ sophomore Julia York at 9.875. Sophomore Courtney Dowdell finished tied for third with Bowling Green sophomore Lauren Feeley at 9.85. The Huskies’ final score Sunday, 195.65, was only the seventh time they have scored more than 195 in the program’s history.
on bars led the Huskies, and she set a high bar for herself on vault as she scored a 9.75 on Ashley Potts the first vault of Freshman her NIU career. Wrapping up her strong weekend, Potts scored 9.8 on bars, 9.775 on Northern Star vault and 9.825 on beam Sunday. gymnasts of the weekend Sunday, junior Jaelyn Olsen hit a Friday, Potts put together her career high on beam as she scored best meet of the season. Her 9.825 9.85 to win the event.