NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Despite the winter weather outside, it was still all about basketball inside Chartway Arena on Thursday.
The Old Dominion men's and women's basketball games both tipped off despite the storm that dropped more than a foot of snow on parts of Hampton Roads and it's all thanks to Jared Hoernig and his team. Hoernig is the Director of Emergency Management at ODU.
"We have to make sure that it's safe to come to campus and make sure that the roads are clean and that we have a good place to hold the event, that we have parking taken care of, that we have staff to run the event," he said.
Hoernig is in charge of preparing for the intersection of winter weather and basketball. With the Sun Belt Tournament nearing and possible game days at a premium, schools do everything in their power to hold games as scheduled, regardless of the weather. If both teams and officials are on site, the show must go on. The Arkansas State women and Marshall men both arrived in Norfolk on Tuesday.
"I feel bad for our fans," Old Dominion Director of Athletics Dr. Wood Selig said. "I know it's an imposition for our fans who might not be able to get here and they're missing a game that they want to see, but we really owe it to the student-athletes and the league to play the game."
"We're coordinating with the home team, the visiting team and making sure we have travel arrangements taken care of, the officials taken care of and make sure we have a good guest experience for everybody who shows up," added Hoernig.
Cancelling games is an absolute last resort. Rescheduling is not the easiest thing to pull off in college basketball, especially this late in the regular season. The Monarchs make sure every necessary role is filled, including scorer's table personnel such as shot clock operators, scorekeepers and sports information directors.
"You've got to keep in mind that we need the scorer's table, too," pointed out Selig. "We've got to have a shot clock operator, you've got to have all the game personnel. We made arrangements at the Spring Hill Suites right next door to put all of our essential game personnel there."
It was a plan put in place well before the storm's arrival to ensure that tipoff would happen safely and successfully and execution that allowed those in the arena to feel like it was business as usual.
"We put a lot of work into making sure that our plans are well-oiled and we have everything ready to go," Hoernig said. "At that point it's just implementation and making sure that everybody knows what they need to do and their roles and responsibilities are all set and then we just implement."
The Old Dominion women topped Arkansas State Thursday afternoon, 95-88. The Monarch men meet Marshall at 5:00 PM.
