Stentz-Baugher aids off-court plans
By: Bob Nuse
When the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament gets down to four teams and Final Four play begins in Cleveland, Rachael Stentz-Baugher will finally get a chance to relax and watch a game.
For the Princeton High School graduate, the 18 months leading up to the Final Four being played in Cleveland and the last four weeks in particular have been a hectic time, but an experience she would never trade.
Stentz-Baugher has been working for the past 18 months with the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. While she has little to do with the games that will be played on the court, the former three-sport athlete at PHS is one of the most involved with what will be going on off the court.
"I’m involved with sponsor fulfillment, logistics, creating budgets, community involvement," Stentz-Baugher said. "I have no responsibility for the games themselves. But I am involved with the projects in the community surrounding the games. There are 12 different projects to get people excited about the games coming to Cleveland.
"Saturday, March 31 is my actually last day of work. The games are played April 1 and April 3 (at Quicken Loans Arena). I’ll still help oversee some of the VIP functions that weekend, but once the games start, my work is pretty much done."
Most of what Stentz-Baugher has done in preparation for the Final Four being played in Cleveland surrounds getting the community involved and aware that the city will be hosting the women’s semifinals and championship games.
Stentz-Baugher has a hand in all of the events as the Director of Programs for the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. Among the activities that have taken place or will take place over the next couple of weeks leading up to the games are several geared towards female athletes and letting them know about the leadership role they can take in the community.
"One area of the programs that we’re doing is youth mentoring and leadership and teaching girls that there are things that they learn through sports that translate later into life," said Stentz-Baugher, who played basketball, soccer and lacrosse while at PHS. "They can learn things like winning and losing gracefully and how to get along with your teammates or with your coach.
"Those are things you need to deal with in life. We want them to know that there were a lot of girls and women who fought hard to get them the opportunities they have now."
One of the highlight events will be held March 30, when Cleveland will host Title IX Hoopla, celebrating 35 years of Women and Sport. The featured speakers will be Billie Jean King and USA Today columnist Christine Brennan.
That will be a big night for Stentz-Baugher, who by then will have basically finished 18 months worth of work.
"It’s a lot of work that I enjoy," she said. "What makes it special for me is that I feel like I am doing work that matters. It matters to the girls and to the community. I am doing things that I feel matter to me and to the community."
When the games begin, she’ll get a chance to relax and watch the action. She hasn’t had to worry about selling tickets for the event.
"The games have been sold out the past 15 years, so they’re not worried about ticket sales," said Stentz-Baugher, who still plays in a co-ed soccer league with her husband, Danny, and feels like she is a better athlete now than she was when she was in high school. "They do a national lottery in August and the games sell out. The community doesn’t typically have an opportunity to buy tickets.
"What we do is projects to get the local community involved. We want people to think about the Final Four coming to Cleveland and I have been involved in that way."
Since moving to Cleveland after graduating from Indiana University, most of her work has been on the non-playing side of sports. When she first arrived in Cleveland, Stentz-Baugher landed a job with the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. After a year-and-a-half in that position, she went to work with Classic Worldwide Productions, a television production company. The company did in-house video for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I did a lot of the crewing and learned enough about the technical side to be able to help in other areas," she said. "It was a long road and I came a long way and learned a lot."
Eventually she went back to the GCSC, where she has been working steadily in preparation for the Final Four.
"I was hired in August of 2005 and this has been my primary responsibility the entire time," Stentz-Baugher said. "The next three weeks are it. This is what I have been working for the whole time. I have been working the past 18 months for these next three weeks.
"I’m exhausted. But I’m not even thinking about taking a day off and not working these next three weeks. This is an opportunity and a challenge. This is what I have been working for all this time."
Once the Final Four is over, Stentz-Baugher’s work with the GCSC will be done. But she already has plans for what to do after the big event.
"After this I am going to be working for myself," said Stentz-Baugher, who works part-time with the Cavaliers as a camera assistant on game days. "This is my chance to shine and make a name for myself. I am going to be starting my own event development and production company, RSB Consulting. I’ll be doing corporate and non-profit events. There is a huge market for it. As more and more companies downsize, there is more of a market for outside people to come in and run these events.
"But that’s for later. Right now, all of my focus and energy is on these next three weeks."

