R-Phils' intern works NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in Philadelphia

Editors Note: John Saeger, an intern in the Reading Phillies PR Department, was part of St. Joe's athletic staff that hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Philadelphia.  The St. Joe's alum recall his experience here.  

There are few events in the world of sports that can rival the NCAA tournament. The passion, pageantry, and drama surrounding those 64 games is truly special, and I was lucky enough to be on hand as a media relations volunteer for the 2009 opening rounds at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. 

My job assignment at the tournament was being a runner.  For games that were covered on as grand a scale as these were, runners are kept busy by distributing statistics, press releases, and other information to media along press row, the television trucks, and broadcasters.  The Wednesday and Friday off-days were dominated by press conferences and preparation for the next day's games.  The bulk of this preparation consisted of laying out the seating arrangements for press row. 

One of the fringe benefits of being a runner is being able to sit directly behind the teams’ benches while 20,000 fans packed the arena and millions more watched the same games on television just gives an entirely new perspective on what kind of event these games are. Watching it on TV is one thing – just being there was a memorable feeling in itself. 

Our part of the opening round showcased some of the best programs in the country – UCLA, Connecticut, Brigham Young, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth, American, Tennessee-Chattanooga, and local powerhouse Villanova.

The marquee games in our niche of the tournament were both in Thursday’s second session. 14th-seeded American University took Villanova deep into the second half before finally yielding to Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham’s outstanding performances (25 points apiece). The day’s nightcap of VCU and UCLA went down to the wire, as the VCU Rams narrowed the Bruins’ lead in the closing minutes of the second half. VCU guard Eric Maynor’s final shot glanced off the front iron of the rim, denying the Wachovia Center a chance to see one of those memorable buzzer beaters that highlight March basketball every year. As it always is with March Madness, you can’t help but root for the underdog. The hope of being in the arena for one of those shots that is shown on TV for years after the fact is just too irresistible – no matter what your bracket pools or rooting allegiances are.

Even though both second round games saw UConn and Villanova roll over their competition, it was still exciting to see players like 7’3’ behemoth Hasheem Thabeet, electric Darren Collison, and tenacious Scottie Reynolds in top form. Thabeet’s monstrous block of Tennessee-Chattanooga player Ty Patterson - who was trying to dunk the ball on a fast break in the first game - was the most outstanding highlight of the six games. 

I will take two things from this past weekend – the culmination of months of effort by dozens of people to make the event possible, and the atmosphere of the fans who jammed the Wachovia Center. Each made this year’s March madness particularly memorable. 

This story was posted on March 26, 2009