By Colby Shannon
Throughout March and early April, sports management professionals across the Indianapolis area will come together to pull off a feat that’s never been accomplished. For the first time in the NCAA’s history,the Division I, Division II, Division III, and National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championships will take place in one location.
Of the thousands of individuals involved in putting together this historic event, few have had a special impact on its development and capitalized on the opportunity to make a difference in the Indianapolis community because of it. Three women, who serve as leaders in college sports and Indiana events, have used this opportunity to make history, and be remembered for it.
JoAn Scott – NCAA
Now on her 12th Men’s Final Four event, JoAn Scott has been a driving force in the landscape of collegiate basketball.
Scott has always found herself surrounded by sports. Growing up in Nebraska, she was a skilled volleyball and basketball player and competed at the University of Nebraska Kearney, where she found a home working for the men’s basketball team. She loved being around the sport so much that after graduating in 1986, she traveled to Colorado Springs to be a part of USA Basketball. During her nine years there, she went to two Olympic events in Barcelona and Atlanta with the “Dream Team” and climbed to a Director of Operations position.
In 1996, she started at Nike and stayed for 17 years with a focus on Olympics marketing and men’s basketball. Scott was a part of Nike’s ascension in sports apparel as the brand rose to dominance in the basketball world during her tenure.
Scott made the switch back to athletics organizations in 2013 when she joined the NCAA as the Managing Director of men’s basketball championships. Eventually, that title changed to Vice President of men’s basketball, which Scott still serves as. Since 2015, she’s overseen every Men’s Basketball Final Four event.
This year’s Final Four will be unlike any other that Scott has worked, as four championships come to Indianapolis. Scott shared that having the 2021 men’s tournament take place in a bubble in Indianapolis paved the way for the same city to host four championships at once. “Instead of bringing all the teams to Indianapolis in a bubble, we’ll bring all of our championships,” she remarked.
The benefits of bringing the entire men’s college basketball community to one city, according to Scott, include networking opportunities for all levels of the industry and creating a one-stop shop for basketball lovers to experience the game at the highest level.
“We anticipate 75,000 to 100,000 people coming into [Indianapolis],” said Scott. “The streets are going to be full.”
It takes a village to put on an event at this scale, and some of those villagers include the students that make up the several college campuses in the surrounding Indianapolis area. “I’d love to tally the number of students [who] touched the Final Four, volunteered, helped, or wrote stories,” she said. “That’s one of our goals is to really let students in this next generation see what it’s like.”
Sarah Myer – Indiana Sports Corp
“I wanted to help Indianapolis grow. I had fallen in love with it.”
After moving to Indiana to get her undergraduate degree in Journalism from Butler, Sarah Myer caught on to ‘Hoosier hospitality.’ Despite her plan of moving back home one day, she left Cleveland in the rearview mirror.
Myer’s involvement with Indiana athletics began in 2004 at Indiana Sports Corp, where she volunteered at the Olympic Swim Trials, an event she would go on to direct 20 years later. She continued to immerse herself in Indianapolis events, obtaining an internship with Pacers Sports and Entertainment, followed by an eight year tenure with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in a marketing role.
All the while, one thing remained present, volunteering at any ISC event she could. She assisted with Super Bowl XLVI and the 2015 Final Four. “I was really seeing how sports was having this great impact on the city,” said Myer. “And when I heard that a job was opening at [Indiana] Sports Corp in their marketing department, I wanted to go for it.”
In 2019, Myer was hired as the Director of Marketing at ISC. Her entrance in the organization came just as chaos was about to ensue across the world. The 2020 pandemic challenged her role and the entire city of Indianapolis, especially as they prepared to host the entire 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Myer shared that her role became fluid during this period. As they prepared to welcome 68 teams into the city, she assisted with preparing hospitality spaces, bringing quarantined areas of the city back to life, and filling the stands with cutouts of fans.
“We wanted to be able to provide a great fan experience and a great student athlete experience for the entire tournament because these were athletes that were finally getting their chance and may have even had a chance in 2020 that didn’t happen.”
After the success of the 2021 Men’s Tournament, Indianapolis used the experience as a resume builder, which allowed the city to win the bid for the 2024 Olympic Swim Trials. Shortly after, Myer was chosen to be the director of the event. “I knew in my heart how big this could be, but I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work trying to sell an event that’s never been done at this magnitude before.” The magnitude: transporting two million gallons of water inside of Lucas Oil Stadium, an unprecedented feat in sports operations.
Myer, now the Chief of Staff and Strategy at ISC, shared that the preparation for this year’s Men’s Basketball championships started three years ago when her team traveled to past Final Fours to learn from their events. Myer shared that during Indianapolis’ Final Four weekend, she’ll be in Phoenix to shadow the Women’s Final Four as ISC prepares to host that event in 2028.
The 2026 Men’s Basketball championships have challenged Myer to unite organizations across Indianapolis, utilizing partners like the NCAA, IBJ, Visit Indy, the Capital Improvement Board, the Downtown Indy Alliance, and media members
“It’s been great to see how many people have stepped up on the Indy side,” said Myer. “Again, it goes back to the opportunities that we get because we are a part of the Indianapolis community.”
Ashleigh Newbold – Indiana Sports Corp
Ashleigh Newbold brings robust knowledge and insightful experience of putting on large scale events to her role as the Vice President of Engagement at ISC.
A Greenwood, Indiana native, Newbold double majored in Kinesiology and Business at Hanover College. Soon after graduating, she found herself managing a local pub, where she found a new passion in event planning and marketing.
Her internship with Indiana State Fairgrounds created foundational skills in putting together big events. This set her up for an opportunity with ISC in 2017 to be an Event Manager.
In her first years with ISC, she worked operationally to put on events like Horizon League championships, the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament, and Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. In 2022, she was promoted to Director of Engagement, where she had her hands in just about every event that would come through the ISC office.
In January of 2024, Newbold assumed her current role as VP of Engagement. Almost instantly, she was thrown into the biggest challenge anyone in her position could face, the 2024 US Olympic Swim Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium. Working alongside Myer, Newbold had an emphasis on the community outreach that was required. “We were moving it from a smaller arena to a stadium and trying to sell more tickets,” said Newbold. “We also wanted to engage more of our community around the event and water safety.”
Now, as the ISC office prepares to bring four championships to the city, Newbold is as busy as ever. Her work started a year and a half ago when she led the assembly of committees that would bring the basketball championships to its fullest potential.
Currently, Newbold oversees the Education, Innovation, and Outreach departments. Some of the initiatives put on by her teams include Read to the Final Four, sustainability efforts to preserve the city’s cleanliness after the event passes through, and community events like The Dribble and The Fan Jam.
In addition to these projects, Newbold is also overseeing a selection of five IU Indy graphic design students who have the opportunity to each create a poster that will be mass produced and distributed at the Final Four. With the help of 650 volunteers that she oversees, Newbold’s work will impact 21 projects to help the Indianapolis community, including a full renovation of the Christian Park Family Center.
“The impact we can make is so much greater when there’s accessible, free opportunities for community members and fans,” says Newbold. “What motivates me in this job, what drives me to continue working in this space and trying to evolve and grow, is the fact that we can reach out to our community in such a unique way.”
“I’m always excited when Indy gets to do something for the very first time because I know we’re going to knock it out of the park.”