UMES president’s image among the Final Four cutout crowd
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
A four-member contingent headed by a Hoosier state native will represent the University of Maryland Eastern Shore at the 2021 edition of college basketball’s Final Four in Indianapolis.
Well, actually, their images will be present.
As “cutouts.”
In the stands.
Of Lucas Oil Stadium.
The NCAA holds the final two rounds of its annual basketball extravaganza — dubbed March Madness, for some reason — in early April in football arenas.
Lotsa seats — 70,000, to be exact. Lotsa tickets to sell. In normal times.
These times are not normal.
So, this year, the big finale will be mostly fanless — except for family members of student-athletes who are competing, and select personnel from the institutions participating the final weekend’s games.
As the lingering pandemic has proven, empty sports venues don’t give off the kind of vibe that gibes with the excited-to-be there atmosphere TV executives who pay for the right to broadcast games like to project into living rooms.
Enter entrepreneurs who came up with the novel idea of fan-image “cutouts” occupying the seats in crucial camera shots.
In this instance, the NCAA extended its member schools like UMES the opportunity to submit pictures of four people at no charge to a company marketing the “see me on TV” opportunity hoping hoops fan will want their face to catch some screen time during one of the big games.
Stan Bradley, UMES’ associate athletics director for external affairs, said he and colleague Shawn Yonker brainstormed on identifying a list of people whose images should be submitted to the company creating the cutouts.
UMES’ line up for Final Four weekend 2021 will be:
- President Heidi M. Anderson, a native of Gary, IN. Dr. Anderson has been president since Sept. 1, 2018 and rarely misses home basketball doubleheaders.
- Keith S. Davidson, a Philadelphia, PA. native. Davidson has been UMES’ athletics director since 2007. In his 13 years heading the department, the university has won 17 MEAC Championships, five National Championships (in bowling) and 40 student-athletes have earned All-American honors.
- Patricia A. Nativio grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. She is UMES’ head athletics trainer and the department’s sentimental (and deserving) selection. Bradley said Nativio was picked as a nod to the unsung work she does to keep student-athletes healthy and safe.
- Andrew T. Revels, a senior finance major from Annapolis, MD. He’s an infielder on the Hawks’ baseball team and “enjoys fishing as a hobby outside the field,” according to his team bio.
Revels secured the “clean-up” slot in the UMES line-up thanks to a contest cooked up by Bradley and Yonker, who organized a quickie fund-raiser; if someone agreed to make a donation to the athletics program, the donor’s name would put in a pool with a name being drawn randomly.
Nicole and Aaron Revels’ name emerged from the contest and they asked that their son’s image in his Hawks’ baseball uniform be submitted.
So, there you have it. It is possible to be in two places at the same time.
May your high-def TV be brightened Easter weekend by the smiling faces of Hawk nation’s delegation.
