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6/17/2009 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
ETSU Receives NCAA Women's Basketball Grant
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (June 16, 2009) - ETSU was one of 18 institutions or conferences which was selected by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to receive a women's basketball grant as part of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Grant Program, which is in its second year.
The 2009-10 NCAA grant program dedicated approximately $750,000 nationally to increase awareness, exposure and increase attendance of women’s basketball.
In 2008-09, the Bucs received a $45,000 grant from the NCAA and ETSU was able to help grow awareness by increasing its average attendance by 231% and nearly tripling its single-game attendance record when nationally-ranked Vanderbilt came inside Memorial Center on Nov. 21. The Lady Bucs - whose single-game crowd was 1,236 prior to the game with the Commodores - had 3,459 ETSU fans on hand to "Pack the House" against Vanderbilt.
ETSU now looks to continue its success and implement new ideas to create awareness of women's basketball after receiving a $55,000 grant in 2009-10.
"On behalf of the ETSU NCAA Women's Basketball Grant Team, I want to express sincere appreciation to the NCAA for awarding us the grant to promote Lady Buc Basketball for the second year," said Senior Associate Athletic Director Barbie Breedlove. "We knew the competition for grant money would be intense and we feel that the NCAA recognized our accomplishments by not only awarding us a grant in year two of the program, but by increasing the amount by $10,000. Sue Donohoe, Vice President for Women's Basketball, and her staff has walked the walk by rewarding the outstanding results produced by our Grant Team."
"We have already begun our work to promote Lady Buc Basketball in 2009-2010. Coach Kemp and her staff and student-athletes have made our job much easier by winning back-to-back Atlantic Sun Conference Championships and making consecutive trips to the NCAA Championship. We have a great program to promote and we are passionate about promoting Lady Buc Basketball."
A total of 75 member schools and conferences submitted proposals in the second year of the pilot program. National office staff and representatives from the NCAA women's basketball marketing consultant firm, Hawkeye Sports and Entertainment, evaluated the proposals.
