El Paso Sports Columns by Ray Sanchez

Who says El Paso isn’t big time?

During my journalism career I’ve covered Super Bowls, all types of NCAA tournaments, World Series games, Triple Crown races and other national sports and I’ll pit our city against any other in showing how to put on a big event. The Sun Bowl is already known as the Super Bowl of Hospitality. Hundreds of El Pasoans chip in to make it so, from city officials to businessmen to your everyday Juan Smith. They welcome visitors, handle traffic, sell programs, provide services for the media and do the countless other things necessary to
make things go smoothly. And they do it with a smile.
 
ONE CAN SAY all that about the recent Conference USA Men and Women Basketball Tournaments held here this month, too. I was popping my shirt buttons with pride again when I attended the games at the Don Haskins Center and Memorial Gym. Teams were feasted, visitors were embraced, members of the media were provided with everything from gifts to food to outstanding facilities. Extra press rows were even provided at the Don Haskins Center and I could almost imagine myself at the NCAA Finals. Speaking of which, I even overheard some folks talking about how El Paso could indeed hold an NCAA tournament.
 
I MARVEL at all those who make El Paso shine so brightly, but let me single out a couple of unheralded heroes who, perhaps, work harder than anyone else. They’re media relations directors Jeff Darby of UTEP and Trent Hilburn of the Sun Bowl. How in the world they can handle such big numbers of gruff, demanding, harried,
deadline-frenzied folks without losing their sanity is beyond me. They have to coordinate seating, print programs, approve credentials, provide statistics, give running accounts of each game during and after the game, even write stories for general release. I asked Darby if a tournament game is twice as hard to handle as a regular season game. “No,” he said, “it’s five times harder.”
 
ONE OF THE biggest problems is deciding who gets press credentials. Hilburn’s task at the Sun Bowl was even harder than usual this past season. “We usually get 200 or so requests for media credentials,” he says, “but because of Notre Dame we received 500 this year.” Not all requests can be satisfied, of course, so they’re filled by size of circulation or viewership or listening audience plus connections with the participating teams. For example, newspaper-wise in El Paso, the El Paso Times gets first seating choice because it has the highest paid circulation. El Paso Inc. goes second because it ranks second in paid circulation.

There are many other local print publications but most of them are free of charge. The most notable is What’s Up and it is usually third in the pecking order.
 
THE REST? It’s a battle. Some are distributed citywide but some are just of the neighborhood variety. Nearly all believe they should be given credentials. Both Hilburn and Darby have to turn away quite at few of them and oh, the angry replies. The editor of one of them even threatened to sue the Sun Bowl this past season
because it was turned down for pressbox seating, claiming it would hurt it’s publication by not allowing it to cover the game. Both Hilburn and Darby realize it’s all part of the job and take the gripes in stride.
And they help each other. Among other things, UTEP provides its football stadium for the Sun Bowl and this year the Sun Bowl provided 75 of its own volunteers to help with the C-USA meet. Hilburn and Darby keep doing what seems an impossible job with incredible skill.

Hats off to them.