Home court advantage SWAC comes to USU Eastern

This archived article was written by: Josie Sue Slade

The 12 men’s and women’s basketball teams from the SWAC will converse in Price to see who the best team in the conference is and who will represent the conference at the NJCAA in Kanas. Other schools besides USUE participating include Salt Lake Community College, College of Southern Idaho, Snow College, North Idaho College and Colorado Northwestern Community College.
The history of SWAC goes back to 1986 when nine schools decided to resume round-robin competition after is was discontinued in 1985. SLCC didn’t start playing until 1987, and the current name was adopted in 1990.
This year, USU Eastern hosts the SWAC Tourney in the Bunell-Dmitrich Athletic Center. Hosting a conference such as this one is a big task. To help with this task, USUE brought in Rachel Lund as tournament director and go-to person to help make everything run smoothly.
Lund is originally from Manti and graduated from Southern Utah University. She began her work in higher education at Snow College with Greg Dart, USU Eastern’s vice chancellor over student services. Taking a break from her higher education career, Lund continued her education and received her master’s degree in mass communication at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Lund is excited for what this tournament will bring to USUE and the surrounding community.
“It brings the opportunity to show off our community and can be very beneficial to the community with the money teams bring in,” Lund said.
Current USUE students have a unique opportunity. Since the SWAC Tournament moves to different schools every year, USUE only hosts the tournament every six years. Not every student who attends USUE receives the chance to attend SWAC at home. Lund said, “Not everyone gets this experience. With the addition of home-court advantage, I don’t know why you wouldn’t go.”
This year Chancellor Joe Peterson is paying for USUE students to get into the tournament. Normally students are required to pay $5, but both Lund and Peterson hope to encourage more students to attend the tournament and give USUE teams a home court advantage.
Students only need to show their student ID at the BDAC ticket office to receive a ticket to the game. There will also be a drawing for an iPad at both men’s and women’s basketball games.
If you have any questions or comments about SWAC please email Rachel Lund at [email protected].