Braedan Shea
@braedan_shea
For Springfield College Director of Conferences and Special Events Kathy Smith, the Spalding Hoophall Classic is a year-round labor of love. Smith works closely with Springfield College alumnus and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Vice President of Basketball Operations Greg Procino ’05 –- along with a team of students and staff members — to plan and execute the event. Smith has been a part of every Hoophall Classic at Springfield since the event’s inception. As she oversaw her 22nd Hoophall, The Springfield Student sat down with Smith to find out what goes on into pulling off the event.
The Student: What does it take to pull off an event like this?
Smith: Each year, Greg and I will meet a week after the event [to discuss] what works and what doesn’t work. This year, we made a lot of changes – side seating, relocation of the media – all of those pieces. I’ll start working next week on closing up the budget. We will spend a good few months wrapping and we meet fairly regularly with athletics to talk about their schedules. We’re only not thinking about [Hoophall] once or twice a year. We’re thinking about it all 52 weeks of the year.
The Student: How many people are working at Hoophall?
Smith: Hundreds. The school has about 30 students working for them. Over 100 students are here from the Sports Management program, and 14 more are with campus media. At all times there are at least 10 custodians [faculty from] Facilities, HVAC, there’s people from all over. Harvest Table brings around five people daily. Including all the outside media, there are hundreds working each day.
The Student: How many years have you been in charge?
Smith: Well this is the 22nd annual Hoophall, and we’ve been involved ever since that first year. But when it started it was just two days. We just had a deli platter for food. There weren’t any scouts, coaches weren’t allowed upstairs, it was not nearly what it is today. 2014 was when we really started exploding. There were a lot of people, and one of my graduate assistants suggested that we bring people upstairs to help with the overflow. That’s when I started to realize that we needed more help. So in 2015, the event really started to take shape.
The Student: What is your favorite part of Hoophall?
Smith: The five o’clock game on Monday. No, not really. I think my favorite part is Monday, when prospective students who have been accepted to Springfield College have the opportunity to come here and take it all in. Another part that I love is seeing the sponsors that only come once a year, because we all get along so well.
Photo by Nick Storlazzi/The Student