A cold front arrived in Muncie at the wrong time for women's basketball coach Tracy Roller.
With temperatures in the 40s and wearing two winter coats, Roller sat on a 25-foot high scissor lift near the intersection of McGalliard Road and Bethel Avenue for 12 hours Thursday as part of a promotion to sell 1,000 women's basketball season tickets. During her time on the lift, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the athletic department sold more than 200 season tickets and now have 530 season ticket holders.
"My overall impression was I'm pretty happy but I'm ready to get warm," Roller said after coming down from the lift Thursday. "I don't know maybe we got the sympathy vote. It's definitely a different change of weather but this is more basketball season-like."
Although its still 470 season tickets away from Roller being able to come down from the scissor lift, Ball State has already set a team record for season tickets. Last season the Cardinals sold 407 season tickets and didn't have more than 1,000 people in attendance until their fifth home game.
Roller said she didn't know what to expect when she got in the lift Thursday morning because the athletic department announced her promotion Tuesday. However, she said she was impressed with turnout from the Muncie community.
"The community in a very short amount of time has really rallied and stepped up to help out the cause," she said. "I really do think 1,000 was a lofty goal and I was hoping we could reach it because it shows a lot about interest in women's basketball."
Matt McCollester, director of marketing and communication, said he was happy with the Thursday's response, but felt bad for the coach having to deal with the cold weather.
"I jokingly said with her earlier when it was 90 degrees, watch next week the weather will turn and it did turn," McCollester said. "I mean how can you not see the passion that she has for her program when she is going to go on a lift for 12 hours a day to promote her sport. It makes my job easier and makes her visible to the community, which is what we want."
Roller is entering her seventh season as Ball State's head coach and is the all-time winningest coach in the program's 34-year history with 118 wins. When Roller took over the program following the 2000-01 season the team average home attendance was 1,291. However, last season the team average 1,710 people at home games.
Roller said her 12 hours on the lift weren't as boring as she thought it would be. She said she was able to communicate with fans near the lift via walkie-talkies, including several people who never attended a women's basketball game before.
"It was an awesome range of supports who have been with us from the beginning to people that are brand new," she said. "We had a lot fun responses like 'my wife doesn't know that I'm here and hope she doesn't mind but this is her Christmas present.'... Hopefully we will have as many fans stop by today because that was the best part of my day."
In addition to communicating with fans, a pulley system was used to bring Roller food while on the lift. Roller said she received a plenty of food throughout the day and was most excited about the pot of coffee IHOP provided her for breakfast.
"I've never had breakfast on a scissor lift before but that was pretty cool," she said. "I've gained more weight today doing nothing than I do in a week."
With 470 season tickets needed to be sold before she doesn't have to go back up on the lift, Roller said she's unsure how many tickets they can sell today, but knows she will definitely be back up on the scissor left starting at 7 a.m.
"Even if we get close it says a lot already that we surpassed our season tickets from last year already," she said. "So baby steps and maybe by Saturday we can be done and reach our goal"
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