GREENVILLE, N.C (WNCT) — A sports management class at East Carolina University has the opportunity of a lifetime. They’ll be participating in the official volunteer program for the 2024 NCAA Men’s Final Four.
This is the same program that was given the opportunity to do volunteer work at the Super Bowl. Dr. Stacey Warner gives her students the best opportunity to grow and learn in their careers at the biggest stages for sporting events. In April, a group of sports management students will be at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.
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Warner is known for putting her students in the best situation to advance their careers. Going to March Madness was something she thought of from her own experiences.
“I actually as a graduate student worked for the NCAA headquarters,” she said. “I was in Division I basketball. And I absolutely had a great experience. So I kind of wanted to do something to kind of go to my routes and open that door up for some ECU sports management student.
“We had five of them that said ‘Hey I want to go and I’m going to find my way out there.’ So, we’re really excited about that.”
The opportunity is open to graduate students, but Dr. Warner says she loves allowing passionate students to succeed, so she asked a current senior, Kayla Precht, to tag along.
“I applied for the Super Bowl, and I didn’t get into that and then she reached out to me and was like hey we have this awesome opportunity,” she said. “This is the first time we’re going to this event. So, I’d love for you to be involved in it. And I was so beyond excited to do that, so I definitely was all in.”
Warner gave students a two-credit class opportunity in the fall, where they learned planning, leading, and organizing. This all led to a one-credit volunteer opportunity in the spring, to see it unfold at one of the top stages in sports.
“I’m just super excited for the students that are going out there and kind of started it in the fall, thought it through, thought through all the planning, all the logistics,” she said. “And now are actually going to get to go out and experience the Final Four in Phoenix.”
Warner’s class comes from a ton of backgrounds in sports including media, sales, advertising and fan engagement. Precht says as a student, each has the opportunity to pick where they volunteer at the event.
You could look at the shifts and sign up and choose either event staff, gameday staff, on location sort of stuff,” she said. “There’s also like the fan fest, the music fest, you could kind of just choose whatever you wanted to work at. So not only could you work kind of stuff within the game, and in the stadium, but you could also work kind of the fan fest and stuff so it’s super fun.”
Warner said her, and her class unfortunately didn’t make a March Madness bracket because they’re working the event and will have to remain impartial to any teams competing. As the event gets closer, however, Warner said being surrounded by true sports fans will make it tough not to.
