By David Peters, Tournament Media Coordinator
The numbers from the 2015 NIRSA National Basketball Championships at North Carolina State University are simply staggering: 13,940 points, 1,063 participants, 205 volunteers, 160 games, 95 teams, 25 hours, 11 courts, 4 champions, 1 weekend. Over 1,000 student participants from 65 institutions joined 205 volunteer staff from over 70 schools on April 17–19 in Raleigh for the final event of the NIRSA Championship Series 2014–2015 year!
The National Basketball Championships was certainly an all-hands-on-deck event for NC State Recreation—over 80 professional and student staff were involved in making this year’s event happen. And orchestrating it all was definitely more than just a single weekend’s worth of work. “We really started planning this year’s event right after last year’s was done,” says Mary Yemma, Assistant Director of Competitive Sports at NC State and member of the Host Committee. “We have committees of professionals and students for operations, special events, transportation, hospitality—everything that goes into making the tournament successful.”
And it’s been a definite success since 2008. “In our eight years, we have doubled the number of teams, officials, and volunteer staff,” notes Mary. “At 95 teams now, it certainly takes a lot more staff to facilitate all the functions of the tournament.” Providing assistance this year were 75 NIRSA professionals and graduate students from 46 different institutions.
“People travel from all across the country to volunteer and make this tournament a success”, says Anna Zych, Coordinator of Intramural Sports at Stevenson University in Maryland and a member of the All-Tournament Committee. “Both the NC State staff and the team of volunteers work to enhance the experience for our participants. It is our hope that they will take great experiences back to their campuses, share them with friends, and encourage those students to participate in the future.”
While the priority for most teams is to take home a national championship, Aaron Hobson—Assistant Director of Competitive Sports at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Co-Tournament Director—is quick to point out that both the participating athletes and the volunteer staff are learning so much more. “The student participants are learning teamwork, working through adversity, and networking with each other,” says Aaron. “At the same time, tournament volunteers are learning event management skills and officials development techniques while also networking with fellow colleagues to gather ideas that they can implement when they return to their campuses.”
The one group of attendees that arguably gains the most from their tournament experience is the student officials. Fifty-seven referees from 38 schools were tasked with officiating the tournament’s 160 games over the course of three days. Prior to the opening tip-off, the officials received hours of training and tips from an esteemed group of two dozen clinicians—many of whom split time as both NIRSA professionals and college basketball officials.
NCAA referee Doug Shows, a veteran Division I Men’s Basketball official with 23 years of experience, was this year’s invited speaker. Doug shared valuable insights from his career and provided encouragement to the group of aspiring officials at the start of the weekend. At every game throughout the tournament, clinicians provided halftime and postgame feedback to each crew. Plus, the Officials Video Committee was able to capture over 2,500 minutes of basketball on video to share with officials for future review. In all, the weekend was an immersive learning experience for student officials that helped them grow personally and professionally. It will no doubt help each and every one contribute even more to their institution’s intramural programs in the future.
From tournament play to slam dunk contests and three-point shooting challenges, Carmichael Gym at NC State was full of action throughout the tournament weekend. And the months of practice and preparation provided valuable learning experiences for all the student athletes, officials, and staff. Yet, in the end, it was these four teams, 24 players, and eight officials who walk out of the gym with national championship or all-tournament honors:
Championship Game Scores
Men’s Club: Cornell 49, Boston College 32
Women’s Club: Illinois 56, Indiana 49
Men’s IM: Georgia Tech 45, Florida 38
Women’s IM: Georgia Southern 31, North Carolina A&T 26
Men’s Club All-Tournament Team
Austin Cagley, Cornell (MVP)
Kieran Hughes, Boston College
Daniel Marshall, Cornell
Drew Jacobs, Boston College
Dennis Cakert, Villanova
Jacob Foss, Wisconsin
Women’s Club All-Tournament Team
Morgan Brinker, Illinois (MVP)
Jordan Trimarco, Indiana
Bre Burden, Illinois
Bri Arnold, Indiana
Saadia Doyle, Howard
Nicole Tolbert, USC
Men’s IM All-Tournament Team
Matt Smith, Georgia Tech (MVP)
Greg Benz, Georgia Tech
Logan Murray, Florida
Kyle Currie, UNC Greensboro
Nasser Almulla, UCF
Royal Thomas, Georgia College
Women’s IM All-Tournament Team
Kelsey Evans, Georgia Southern (MVP)
Brianey Winsow, North Carolina A&T
Andrea Butler, Georgia Southern
Shavonne Duckett, North Carolina A&T
Britny Taylor, UCF
Santana Morrison, Winston-Salem State
All-Tournament Officials
Adreanna Broussard, UT San Antonio
Brent Haskill, South Florida
Matt Jarman, Georgia Southern
Kelsey Jones, UCF
Jared Pennington, East Carolina
Matt Rafferty, Northern Colorado
Kevin Raher, Missouri
Kristina Reed, Purdue
The national championship games in each of the four divisions were streamed live by Wolfpack Sports TV and are available online in their video archive. For complete tournament coverage, including game recaps and award winners, visit the NIRSA Championship Series website or check out the @NIRSAChamp handle on Twitter and Instagram.
After eight years of national championship basketball in Raleigh—including the past three as the NIRSA Championship Series host—North Carolina State University will hand the reins to The Ohio State University. The Buckeyes will host the 2016 NIRSA National Basketball Championships in Columbus. To learn more about the NIRSA Championship Series—including information on 2015-2016 regional and national tournaments—visit the NIRSA website.
For more information about the 2015 NIRSA National Basketball Championships, please contact NIRSA Director of National Sport Programs Valerie McCutchan.
