MU| S p o r t s
Spartan Beat
MU to host DIII Final Four at Coliseum
For as big a deal as it is, Manchester University
Athletic Director Rick Espeset (pictured at
right) doesn’t inject a lot of drama into its
genesis.
Visit Fort Wayne and the Allen County War
Memorial Coliseum called. They asked.
Espeset answered.
“We said, ‘Absolutely,’” he recalls.
Which is how the process got set in motion
that ended with Manchester being selected
as a host for the NCAA Division III Final
Four in men’s basketball in 2019, 2020, 2021
and 2022. The games will be played in the
Coliseum, and it will mark the end of a
23-year stay in Salem, Va., for the DIII
Final Four.
Dates are March 15-16 (2019); March 18-19
(2020); March 19-20 (2021); and March 20-21
(2022). “So I think I know what the event should look
like and I know what the expectations of the
student-athletes are like,” he says.
Manchester, and the Coliseum, played host
to a Division III wrestling regional in 2017.
But this will be wholly different, and Espeset
recognized as much when Visit Fort Wayne
and the Coliseum made their offer. He also knows he couldn’t have better partners
than Visit Fort Wayne and the Coliseum, which
has its own experience with NCAA regional
and championship events, and which partnered
with Manchester and Indiana University-
Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) to put
in bids for 25 NCAA events.
“I’ve been an athletic director here nine years
and we haven’t hosted anything (like this),
and it just seemed like maybe a neat
opportunity,” he says.
It’s also an opportunity to which Espeset
brings a certain level of expertise. As
Manchester’s baseball coach for 21 years,
he served on the Division III baseball
championship committee for four years
and chaired it one year. And he’s taken the
Spartans to the DIII nationals twice.
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“They really did the work,” Espeset says. “We
found out, working with Visit Fort Wayne and
the Coliseum, that their customer service is like
Disney World. There’s never a ‘no.’ They know
how to do events, they want to do it first class,
and yeah, they’re just really good to work with.”
Coliseum general manager Randy Brown
reciprocates.
“We couldn’t have a more professional group
of people to work with,” he says. “Just top to
bottom, the quality of the Manchester people is
unmatched. They make our job easy.
“It’s a perfect marriage here.”
Manchester’s part in it, Epseset says, will be
to make sure the games, and the logistics
surrounding them, come off smoothly.
“All the stuff kind of leading up to the game
day is the Memorial Coliseum and Visit Fort
Wayne,” he says “Now the game happens, and
then it’s kind of one of the areas we’ll probably
take the lead on a little bit. Mark Adkins (MU
sports information director) will run the media
room and handle all the press. We’ll probably
in some ways be responsible for the execution
of the game as far as PA announcer and things
like that.”
By Benjamin Smith