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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (February 2, 2010) — Milligan College and the Johnson City Convention and Visitors Bureau/Chamber of Commerce announced a partnership this morning to once again bring the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships to the Tri-Cities, thanks to the sponsorship of Dex. This is the 10th year the national tournament will be held in the region, with a combined economic impact of over $19 million to the region over the past nine years.
“We are very pleased to host this tournament for 10 years straight,” said Milligan President Donald R. Jeanes. “It’s wonderful to see these collegiate athletes compete and it’s great to see what it does for our region, by bringing over 3,000 visitors here each year. This is truly a partnership of us, the Chamber, and East Tennessee State University.”
The event will be held March 4, 5 and 6 at the East Tennessee State University/Mountain States Health Alliance Athletic Center in Johnson City.
“This is truly a partnership of the Chamber, Milligan, East Tennessee State University, and many businesses and individuals in our region and it is through their hard work that we have seen this dream come to fruition to energize and impact our region,” said Robert White, board chair of the Chamber. “I also want to thank the region for making a 10 year commitment to help make this event the best it can be for these student-athletes.”
Over 1,500 male and female athletes from NAIA institutions across the U.S. will participate in the three-day event, which includes a heptathlon, pentathlon, track events and field events.
On Wednesday, March 3, the NAIA student athletes will visit local schools as part of their Champions of Character program to promote a true spirit of competition through the five core values of respect, integrity, responsibility, servant leadership and sportsmanship.
New this year is that Milligan will host the opening awards ceremony, featuring guest speaker Brooks Johnson, on Wednesday evening, March 3, at 7 p.m. in Seeger Memorial Chapel. Johnson is a former head coach at Stanford University (1979-92) and California Polytechnic State University (1993-96) and has coached an athlete at every Olympics since 1968. He himself competed for Tufts University and later earned a law degree, leading to jobs with the State Department and the Governmental Affairs Institute. He is a former director of the ARCO Olympic Training Center and former High Performance Division chair for USATF.
“This 10 year anniversary is very special and serves as a landmark for us here at Milligan to reflect back and see where we are now with our program,” said Milligan head coach Chris Layne. “In these 10 years, we’ve had 11 top 25 national championship appearances and 33 All-Americans, 20 of which have taken place in the ETSU dome at this event. This event means a lot to Milligan and to our program and we are very grateful.”
Milligan also unveiled a tournament website today athttp://www.milliganbuffs.com/naianationals that features information and updates for coaches and the teams and promotes the Tri-Cities region.
“We love supporting our community,” said Vickie Bryant, sales support manager for Dex. “Last year we sponsored the event and our employees volunteered their time. It was an amazing event and we are pleased to once again partner with the Chamber to bring this event to East Tennessee.”
The NAIA has 50,000 student-athletes participating at nearly 300 member colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada.
“It’s been an honor hosting this event for the past nine years. We truly feel like we’re part of the NAIA family and we look forward to working with the NAIA through this event and other events in the future,” said Karen Hubbs, director of sports development for the Johnson City Convention and Visitors Bureau.