by Doug Ireland
San Antonio. The Alamo. The River Walk. Sea World. Six Flags over Fiesta Texas. All those fantastic restaurants.
Not a bad place to shake free of the travel hiatus many have endured since last March.
What if someone said you could drive over (expensed) and stay, on the house, for nearly a month?
Greg Burke punched that ticket. The director of athletics at Northwestern State recently spent 26 days in the Alamo City, almost all bills paid, not on NSU’s tab, but the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s account.
It was a working trip. Wife SuSu was back in Natchitoches, along with adult daughter Catherine.
So, that was misery. And that was the worst of it.
But far from the only drawbacks to Burke’s role as a first-year member of the NCAA’s Division I NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee, which selected the teams and oversaw the operations for the 64-team tournament, staged entirely in and near San Antonio, culminating with Stanford edging Arizona State to win the Women’s Final Four and the 2021 national championship.
He’s not griping. Let’s make that clear. He feels honored to have been chosen to serve, proud to have helped pull off the most unique women’s basketball championship ever. He knows he formed relationships and made contacts that can benefit NSU Athletics not only in women’s hoops, but in football scheduling and many other avenues.
But he’s more than entitled to groan more than a little bit, although it’s not in his DNA. However, under questioning, he does admit a few onerous details.
Being in the NCAA bubble left no gray areas. It was isolation at its extreme. COVID testing was constant – more than 21,000 COVID tests administered to teams, officials, staff members, revealing only two positives in the 26 days. Burke was tested daily. DAILY. He had taken two vaccines, a month earlier, but no matter. Nasal swabs (antigen) regularly, and once weekly, a stab up the nasal cavity seemingly to the brain (PCR).
The NCAA bought out some hotels for exclusive use by all participants. Guarded the doors. Sanitized to the extreme. Burke was either in his room, in his car, in an arena (50 miles north at San Marcos for the first two rounds), never ambling around downtown, or through a mall, or at an attraction.
Given his assignment to oversee a first-round remote site, up Interstate 35, for four straight days, Burke was up at 5 a.m. to test at 6, to leave at 7, to get there by 8, and after a full day’s work, to get back to the hotel about 10 that night.
E-mails about tournament operations routinely circulated about midnight, with details of the next day’s protocols and procedures constantly adjusted for the continually evolving, extremely unique circumstances.
“There were days when I’d get up and wouldn’t know the day, or the date. I’ve never experienced that,” he said.
During the first four days, Burke and his colleagues were served catered meals in containers with a piece of meat, a vegetable, starch, salad and a dessert, then were sent to their rooms to eat. When operations shifted to the convention center two blocks away, presenting an approved and treasured opportunity to walk outside for two blocks, it was a glorious day. One staff member veered a couple of turns off the approved route, and was chastised.
What was the most fun he had, outside of basketball and his responsibilities, in San Antonio?
“There wasn’t anything. It was 26 days of business.”
How would you pack for a 26-day trip? Especially limited to two suitcases? Precisely, he said.
Every Tuesday, the NCAA provided a laundry service which had a 24-hour turnaround.
“That was nice,” he said.
The last night of the tournament, after Stanford nabbed the natty, Burke and colleagues were giddy. They were, finally, going home.
Once Burke finally got back to Natchitoches, five days later, at the end of the following week, he was finally able to go watch, in person, his NSU Demons football team, in its last game of the equally odd spring season. What a relief!
It wasn’t a home game. But for Burke, it felt like one. Because it was in San Antonio.
“I didn’t need a trail of breadcrumbs to get there,” he said.
The happy news? No, he didn’t get to have breakfast at The Pancake Haus, because there was an hour-and-a-half wait for that local treasure. Had to settle for IHOP, but at long last, he did get to actually sit in a restaurant, with other humans. Better yet, his return trip allowed him to celebrate a 49-47 NSU victory over the nationally-ranked Cardinals of the University of Incarnate Word.
He lingered amid jubilant Demons on the field for an hour after the game-winning field goal. But there was no jaunt downtown for a midnight stroll on the River Walk to cap the evening in style.
In vintage Burke fashion, instead, he pulled out of the stadium parking lot at 11:45 p.m. and endured an overnight seven-hour drive home, so he could attend a 10:30 a.m. Sunday Senior Day ceremony for the Lady Demon tennis team. He had no role in the recognitions, other than standing on the court, being introduced to the audience, then smiling, clapping, and showing his admiration for how two young ladies from Europe have represented NSU for the last five years.
It’s a safe bet that the 100 or so folks in the stands, and the team members on the court, had no clue he’d driven alone through Hill Country and the Piney Woods of East Texas before dawn’s early light, just to be there to demonstrate respect for Judit Castillo Gargallo and Emma Dancetovic, who were most deserving of it.
Nobody in Natchitoches that Sunday night was more deserving of a good night’s sleep than Gregory S. Burke — who has no plans to visit The Alamo any time soon. But whenever he does, you can bet he’ll have a breakfast reservation at The Pancake Haus.
