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Tuesday, 05 September 2006 18:24 |
By DAVID FORBES
Asheville will host the next two Big South Womenës Basketball Championship tournaments, officials from the college sports conference announced last Wednesday at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce.
The conference, which includes 13 colleges and universities throughout the Southeast, chose Asheville because "it was clear this was an effort that encompassed the entire community, " Big South Commissioner Kyle Kallander said. "It was evident that Asheville has a strong desire to embrace this event and make it go to the next level."
That effort will involve both UNC Asheville ÇƒÓ most of the games will be held in the Justice Center ÇƒÓ and the city government.
After Mayor
Terry Bellamy noted that "we are so glad you made the choice to come to
the city of Asheville," Councilman Jan Davis elaborated on the cityës
efforts to cooperate with the conference and UNCA on the event.
"Youëre going to
be seeing that (the Big South) logo all over town," Davis said. "Weëre
going to have Big South all over the place. Weëd love to see you folks
at the Civic Center. Weëd love to see you at McCormick Field."
He added that the event will serve as part of a larger effort to increase cooperation between UNCA and the city.
"Weëve been
talking about how to integrate the community into the school and the
school into the community ÇƒÓ well this is it," Davis said.
"This council
recognizes the importance of UNCA and we want you playing in our house.
This is the beginning of a really great thing."
Vice Mayor Holly Jones and Councilman Brownie Newman were also in attendance.
This spring, Big
South announced that for the first time in 11 years, it would be
locating its womenës basketball championship as a separate event ÇƒÓ and
in a single city.
UNCA previously hosted championship games in 1999 and 2000.
"I want you to
know that the proposal from UNCA deserved to win," Chancellor Anne
Ponder said. "We have a wonderful basketball program here. But we also
deserve to win because the city, the surrounding area, Biltmore Farms
and the Chamber of Commerce all decided that we would win. We were
going to prevail because of that. When this comes forward, there will
be an economic impact and increased prominence for our city. UNCA takes
seriously our involvement in the surrounding area. This is a wonderful
example of what we can do together."
In remarks to
the Daily Planet after the meeting, Kallander noted that community
participation had, in the minds of the Big South executives, pushed
Asheville ahead of its competition.
"It was very
clear from the quality and content of their presentation that this
wasnët just the school," Kallander said. "This was the entire community
from the Chamber of Commerce to the hotel community to the restaurant
community. Everybody was coming together. It really showed a strong
desire to host the event. It shows me you have a community thatës going
to embrace the event and going to come out and support the event.
Thatës really what put it over the top."
Bringing
sporting events "back to Asheville" has been a major priority at UNCA,
Athletics Director Janet Cone said ÇƒÓ along with making sure that some
of the money stays in the area.
"Money from the
tournament isnët going to go to the conference or UNCA," Cone said.
"Itës going to a legacy fund. It will stay right here in this area to
help girls and women."
She said that
now that it will host the tournaments, UNCA will be "going out into the
community, saying what a wonderful thing this is for the city, for the
community, for women and for womenës basketball."
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