By Patricia Breakey
Delhi News Bureau
DELHI "" The NJCAA Men's Division III Basketball Championship Tournament runs this weekend at SUNY Delhi for the 20th consecutive year "" and for the last time the event will be held in Delhi.
Tournament Director Barbara Sturdevant has been involved with the tournament for the 20 years it has been hosted by the school.
"It's bittersweet knowing that this is the last year," Sturdevant said Tuesday as she was working on the event set up. "I have met a lot of wonderful people."
Sturdevant said she started out working as the tournament accountant 20 years ago, eventually moved up to the No. 2 position for 12 to 15 years and for the last two years has been the director.
"This tournament is all done by volunteers," Sturdevant said. "It's a lot of work and a lot of fun, and at the end of the event, I send out over 100 thank-you notes to all the people and local vendors who are involved."
Gary Cole, a former SUNY Delhi athletic director, started the tournament. Next year, the tournament is moving to Sullivan County Community College, which was determined through a bid process.
"Over the years, I watched a coach come with his son, and I was there when the son came back to the tournament as a coach," Sturdevant said. "It all goes full circle."
Walt Shultheis, 59, of Delhi, is one of the dedicated volunteers who has been there almost since the beginning.
"I worked under Gary Cole setting up platforms and banners," Shultheis said Thursday. "During the last few years, I became a host, greeting the coaches and players as they arrive and helping them get to know the community and where to eat and things like that. We laugh and joke and have a great time with each other.
"I have a wonderful time doing this. But 20 years is a long time. I am going to miss it, but it's time to move on."
Jean Alverson, 79, said she had just become Cole's secretary when the first tournament was held in 1990.
"I had been helping get ready for the tournament because I was in charge of word processing, and I had been getting the paperwork ready," Alverson said. Alverson retired in 1995 but said they kept calling her back to help out.
"I handled the phones, sold tickets, entertained people," Alverson said. "Then I got into a routine of doing certain things like making sure the teams get the stats after each game and cutting up the oranges that the teams get at halftime."
Alverson said she has made lasting friendships with people who came for the tournament, like a family from Redwing, Minn., who contacted her every year to see if a record their son set at a tournament was still standing.
"It's always been kind of a thrill to answer the phone and have someone from Texas wanting to know how to get to Delhi," Alverson said. "My friends can't believe people ask me for directions, because I am always getting lost."
Alverson said about 90 percent of the volunteers are veterans who have been doing the tournament for years.
"Early on we were envied to be working on this, but in recent years it has been harder to find volunteers," she said. "But for us, it's like homecoming every year. It gets me back up here on campus, and it does feel good to come back up."
Alverson said two special people are coming back to Delhi for the tournament this year. Gary Cole will be back officiating on Saturday, and Mary Rittling, a former Delhi staff nurse, who became a professor and then left and became the president of Davidson County Community College in North Carolina, will be coming back to Delhi with her college's basketball team.
SUNY Delhi spokeswoman Kim MacLeod said there are also two nearby teams competing in the tournament this year, Herkimer County Community College and Sulllivan County Community College.
For information about the tournament, visit www.championships-delhi.org.
