NAIA National Tournament

Every good meal has a good appetizer. It’s part of the package. You always need a caesar salad with a chilled fork at the fancy French restaurant your checkbook can’t afford; chips and dip at Mexican restaurant your stomach can’t afford; and buffalo wings with all your buddies at the sports bar your marriage can’t afford. So with that in mind, I had chance to wet my appetite for March Madness by journeying to the NAIA basketball national tournament.
There are a lot of people in this world who have a job they dislike. I would not be one of them. I get paid to shoot videos, write newspaper articles and columns most recently this past week broadcast basketball games over the radio.
It’s a tough life. During my four days in Point Lookout, Missouri covering my school’s men’s basketball team’s two games I had to put in incredible 10 hours of work. That means that I got only another measly 60 hours to sleep, watch games, sleep some more and eat on the school’s account. The stress I felt to achieve everything that needed to be done was almost overwhelming. And to top it all off, the tournament had some pitiful hospitality room that only featured bottled water, milk, tea, donuts, fruit, full meals and ice cream out the wahzoo. Did you know the pain of having to eat Crunch ice cream bars three times a day?
Alright, enough my story that should earn my hazardous work pay on the tournament itself. We have the very first game of the whole show so that means a tip time of 8:30 A.M. That’s right, that’s no type. Basketball was being played at 8:30 in the morning. There were more yawns than made shots in warm-ups. Of course, my partner and I missed a good portion of the pre-game because the staff wouldn’t let us until 7:30 because that’s the rule. Media or not, “no one gets into the building.” Of course the situation grew even more frustrating when the doors opened up and they let the cheerleaders in before us radio people. Obviously it takes more time to fluff one’s pom-poms than it does to set up equipment and conduct a pre-game show.
But once we did get in, everything went fine. No equipment malfunctions, the team won its first ever game on the national scene and we got these really cool press passes to wear around our neck. I’m not going to lie; it made me feel pretty important to show my pass like those FBI guys and get into any room I wanted and walking up and down press row with all the radio guys. I made the comment to the head coach after the second day that I thought I was having more fun than he and his team were actually playing.
And that’s what a good appetizer is all about. It should be a little frustrating because it’s not enough but it should be fun because it builds the excitement for the main dish. I enjoyed by NAIA buffalo wings. It tasted good and built the anticipation for the NCAA tournament. I am now in prime mood to devour of one of the best and most wild sports events in the world.