King Hosts NAIA Soccer, Volleyball

BRISTOL, Tenn. – If King College athletic director Dale Burns fretted at all Friday morning about the snow blanketing the Tri-Cities, he didn’t show it.

At 8 a.m., he went to Tennessee High’s Stone Castle to pick up some extra bleachers. Later, after meeting with his staff and then with the college president, Burns was back outside, spending what was left of his morning clearing the snow off the Parks Field soccer pitch.

A last-minute inconvenience? Sure. But Burns took it all in stride. He had to get the campus ready for a pair of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament matches.

The King women’s soccer team faces No. 12 Berry (Ga.) College today at 2 p.m. The women’s volleyball team takes on No. 18 Indiana Tech at 6 p.m. in the Student Center Complex.

It is the first time in school history that any NAIA tournament events have been played on the King College campus, and it’s been a whirlwind. Burns and his staff had six days to prepare to welcome 43 student-athletes, their coaches and their fans to town.

The NAIA announced earlier this year that it planned to open home-field advantage in first-round national championship using a blind-bid system.

That development intrigued Burns, because he remembered that his department had to foot the bill for air fare, hotels and meals in 2007, when the track & field team participated in the NAIA championships in Fresno, Calif.

Instead of the financial uncertainty that tournament traveling might entail this fall, Burns said he believed that investing the $4,000 bid fee – as well as taking into account additional
expenses for a team banquet and game officials – was a better proposition for the college and for its teams.

“When you put the cost of playing here, traveling to the middle of the United States or going to the West Coast, because you never know where you’re going to go, the bid process was less expensive,” Burns said.

Jim Donahue, King’s chief financial officer, agreed. After the athletic staff presented the costs of traveling versus the expenses of entertaining at home, Donahue released money from the general college fund to bankroll the bid.

Burns wouldn’t reveal how much it cost the college beyond the bid fee, other than to say: “It wasn’t an astronomical amount.” 

“We just felt like it was consistent with what we’re trying to do overall, athletically,” he continued. “When you’re looking at the big picture, we’re wanting to promote King College, we’re wanting to promote athletics. What a better way to do it than bringing national tournaments here?”

According to Ruth Stein, the manager of championship sports for the NAIA, schools bidding on an event had to promise to give the athletes a true “championship experience,” and needed to have the proper facilities.

But, Stein added: “First and foremost they had to qualify for the event.”

King bid for a home game in every sport that qualified for national tournaments – volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s soccer.

NAIA officials on Sunday informed King volleyball coach Chris Toomey and King soccer coach Michael Swan that their bids had been accepted.

“As far as national tournaments go, having one game is great,” Swan said. “But having two games is something totally different. Publicly, we couldn’t ask for anything better than what we’ve got.”

The men’s soccer team opens tournament play this afternoon at Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) College.

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