Departments
Sports
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Week of 16 October 1998 |
Vol. II, No. 10 |
Sports
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This little biggie went to market $10,000 winner scores big in new Supershot contestby Amy Dean The equipment was a field hockey stick and ball; the "goal" was 50 yards away and 10 inches wide. The odds that a Framingham middle school teacher would whack the ball smack into the target -- and walk away with $10,000 for her effort -- may not be as high as winning Publishers Clearinghouse, but it certainly seemed to be a head-shaking near-impossibility. And yet Sue Ames of Ashland scored the goal and won the Supershot prize. Ames, whose daughter Lindsey plays field hockey for Ashland High's varsity team, admits, "The only time I've had a field hockey stick in my hand since high school was when I've carried my daughter's stick. So scoring that goal was like a hole-in-one in golf." Because the Ashland High field hockey coach likes to take the team to college games on the weekends, Ames volunteered to drive some of the girls to the BU-Old Dominion game at Nickerson Field the first weekend in October. Since the BU sports marketing department offers one lucky fan a shot to win $10,000 during halftime of field hockey and soccer games, Ames got a ticket at the sports marketing table. Her number was drawn at random. "It was just fate," she told the Boston Globe. "The whole team was holding hands on the sidelines, and then they rushed onto the field. It was an exciting moment. To be honest, I just didn't want to embarrass my daughter. I just wanted to get it close to the goal. When it went through, I was stunned." "She actually got two shots," explains Sports Marketing Coordinator Ron D'Innocenzo (COM'94). "The wind knocked over the fixture that was placed on the net after she had hit the ball the first time. So we awarded her another shot." And that was the shot that was heard both round the team -- Ames has vowed to split the money among the girls -- and round the sports marketing department, which has scored big with its Supershot publicity. "We're trying to make the games a lot more entertaining for the kids," says D'Innocenzo, "in addition to being sporting events." D'Innocenzo, who returned to BU after working at Arnold Communications, an advertising agency in Boston, knows a great deal about entertaining while selling a product; he was on the business side of the famous "Da-da-da" Volkswagen commercial. "We had no idea how big it was going to be," he says. But in his role as sports marketing coordinator, D'Innocenzo is definitely thinking big. For a nominal premium, SCA Promotions of Dallas, Texas, foots the bill for the Supershot payoff -- or payoffs, since the season is still young -- and D'Innocenzo plans other exciting incentives "to get faculty and staff behind the BU teams." This season, every men's and women's soccer game offers a Supershot soccer goal opportunity, and at all upcoming basketball games fans will have a chance to win a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle with a mini-Frisbee fling from center court into a target. D'Innocenzo is also excited about the Team Terrier kids club he's created, open to children of faculty, staff, alumni, and the local community, which offers a multitude of benefits for a $10 annual membership: free children's tickets to every men's and women's regular season basketball game, free small soda or popcorn at BU home games, a monthly Team Terrier newsletter "pawed" by mascot Rhett, a free birthday party hosted by Rhett at one of the basketball games, and lots of other goodies. But just so single and single-parent BU faculty, staff, and alums won't feel left out of some of the more family-oriented plans, D'Innocenzo also has a basketball game-related Singles Night in the works that starts with an open bar and free food and then seats singles together in the stands. "I came back to BU because I love sports, and I wanted to bring some excitement and school spirit to BU," says D'Innocenzo. "Sports is not everything to a university, but it can certainly bring a community together." |
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On Friday, October 16, men's basketball guard Billy Beal (CAS'99) will be a part of Midnight Mayhem, the Terriers' first practice of the season, which begins at 11:59 p.m. Doors at the Case Gym will open at 10 p.m. Earplugs are optional. Photo by Jen Lombardo |
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