By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University is holding an inaugural "Education Day" basketball game tomorrow as the men's basketball team takes on Kansas Christian College
Senior Associate Athletic Director Ryan Menley says the idea for the event, coined "Field Trip with the Griffs", came after discussions of doing something with the St. Joseph School District.
Menley says the University has done events like this in the past, but previously they had always been during night games, but this year Menley had a new idea.
"Let's schedule a game for 11am, where it is a true field trip," Menley tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And with the St. Joseph School District really focusing on their attendance incentives and everything else, it really was a natural fit with the school district, and then with the other surrounding schools in the area that we could pull from to really make this a special event."
2,000 students from the St. Joseph School District and other area schools will take a field trip to campus for the Griffons men's basketball game.
Menley says the field trip was a surprise for the top two attending grades at each school
"You do the right things during the regular season, or during the school year, and you get rewarded with an experience that's something you hope to remember," Menley says.
Menely says it also is twofold and helps benefit the University as it looks to interest students in to attending Missouri Western in the future
"We want to get the next generation of Griffons out here, and I would question how many of these 2,000 have maybe ever been to a college basketball game," Menley explains. "And so, I think it's a win-win situation."
The top two attending grades from the 13 elementary schools in the district as well as St. Joseph Christian, Cathedral, Mid-Buchanan, and St. Francis – Xavier will be participating.
Menley says this isn't the only effort the University has made to collaborate with the district, pointing out the men's basketball team has essentially adopted the third grade at Hyde Elementary
"They go and visit the third graders and talk about the importance of attendance, and that's not just a one-time thing, that's a yearlong thing that our basketball team works with," Menley points out. "And does that payoff? Yes, it does, because of course one of the grades that had the highest attendance that's attending the game, is the third graders at Hyde Elementary."
Students and faculty will get free attendance into tomorrow's game against Kansas Christian.
Students attending will also get a yellow Griffons t shirt that says "admit one" on it, which Menley says is their season ticket to any game in the future at Missouri Western.
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