In March, there is one true rule of fandom: If your team isn't in it, cheer for Cinderella.
If you subscribe to that theory — and let's be honest, there is no reason you shouldn't — then I have a story for you.
Welcome to Marietta, Ohio.
A town of 15,000 housing a college of 1,350, Marietta doesn't stick out on any national map. But the connection between the college and its surrounding community could easily make headlines nationwide.
The student body of Marietta College does thousands of hours of volunteer work for the community and in return, the town lends its support to the undergrads in all aspects of life.
For instance, the men's basketball team has a foster program that pairs each player with a local family. It is not uncommon for these "foster parents" to attend the players' weddings years down the line.
"I always say that Marietta is the perfect-sized town for Marietta College," Athletic Director Larry Hiser told the Daily.
This fairytale revolves around Marietta's men's basketball team. For years the forgotten stepchild in a perennially strong athletics program, the squad had not made the Div. III NCAA tournament since 1975. Coach Jon VanderWal entered 2010-11 in just his fourth season at the program's helm, and was in charge of a team that didn't have a single senior on the roster.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Pioneers cruised to the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship game, where they played at home last Sunday in front of a crowd of 1,600 — more than one-tenth of the city's population.
"The electricity in the place was just unbelievable. It was one of the best college events I have been associated with in all of my years in college athletic administration," Hiser said.
Marietta struggled early and went into the half down 21 points. But when the Pioneers scored their first basket of the second half, the crowd went crazy. When they tied it late, the crowd was ecstatic. And when junior Trevor Halter hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to officially punch his team's ticket to The Dance for the first time in 36 years, the atmosphere was indescribable.
The next day, hundreds of students packed into a room to watch a webcast of the Div. III selection show, where they learned that Marietta would host the first and second rounds of the national tournament this weekend. Mass excitement, however, quickly turned into panic, as students realized that dorms would be closed starting Friday for spring break.
But the Marietta administration acted without hesitation. Almost immediately following the announcement, the school made the decision to keep the dorms and dining halls open for two extra days in order to allow any student that wanted to attend the games to do so. Hundreds accepted the offer.
The school sold out its 1,000 tickets to both students and Marietta residents for the first-round game in 72 minutes flat. The following day, hundreds stood in the rain from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. waiting for tickets to round two. Seven hundred more watched on webcast.
hat night, the villain was Wittenberg University, who had knocked off Marietta in the tournament 36 years earlier and who couldn't miss in the first half, going into the break up 34-27. All hope seemed lost for the Pioneers.
But almost on cue, Marietta found a little more magic. The Pioneers erased the deficit, and then, down one with six seconds left, freshman point guard Tyler Hammond floated through the lane and tossed up a shot that fell softly into the hoop, sending his team to its first ever Sweet 16 and starting a party in Cinderellaville that continued long after the clock struck midnight.
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