A Sports Management class on campus had an idea to combine a spring-time holiday and Drover Athletics to increase attendance and involvement at baseball games. The student-led event is titled Dusty’s Diamond Dash and will be Tuesday, Apr. 2 at Bill Smith Ballpark at 4 p.m. as USAO’s baseball team battles Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU).
The class first started this idea by choosing a baseball game that was around the same time as Easter, which opens an opportunity. With this they decided to have an Easter egg hunt because they believed the baseball game would have a good turnout as people would be interested in both activities. President Kayla Hale will also throw the first pitch of the game.
“It has been much better to experience these events than hypothetically come up with them, because all their assumptions of the business model in class will be put to test in real time,” Rob Miles, professor of Sports Management, said.
Like many Easter egg hunts, prizes will be available to participants. The search for eggs will start at the beginning of the game and will go on the entire duration of the game or until all eggs have been found. Anyone can participate, but the idea is that younger children take the lead; however, anyone can join in on the fun. The game will have free admission for students, staff, and kids 16 years old and younger.
For the prizes, there will be three different raffles happening and the drawings for those raffles will be during the third, sixth, and ninth innings. Laura Barrios Bardi, a student in the class, estimated that 90% of the eggs are filled with candy. Prizes for the raffle winners include gift cards and Drover gear.
The main goal behind this event was in all to bring the community to support the baseball team, as the egg hunt might spark the interest of groups who might not typically attend baseball games. Miles said another goal of the event was to break down the barriers between different social groups on campus. As of now, this will be a one-time situation for this class, but depending on how successful it is, it could be an annual event in future years.
Students who planned the Easter egg hunt include Madison Garcia, Alexis Mendez, Darko Borisavljevic, Crystal Ortiz, BB Polk, Blake Hughes, and Bardi.
The Sports Management class split into two group projects, and the egg hunt event is the first one. The other group will host their event at another home baseball game Thursday, Apr. 11. The second event will be styled like a little league event.
Nicholas Barnett is a second-year psychology major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
