For WVU administrator and her team, game day begins months before kickoff

April Messerly, executive senior associate athletics director for capital projects, facilities, and event management, is busy overseeing preparations at Milan Puskar Stadium ahead of her 27th WVU football season. (WVU Photo/Brian Persinger)

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When April Messerly reflects on the ramp-up to a West Virginia Universityfootball season, she notes a familiar pattern - preparation seems to start earlier with each passing year.

This season begins Saturday (Sept. 5), when the Mountaineers take on Coastal Carolina at Milan Puskar Stadium.

And as the executive senior associate athletics director for capital projects, facilities, and event management entering her 27th football season, Messerly has been hard at work overseeing the monumental task of bringing Milan Puskar Stadium and the surrounding sports complex to life. Her career is built on quiet but important logistics - made possible through internal coordination, hands-on leadership, and strategic vendor partnerships.

"We have multiple vendors that work to prepare the facility that are not just WVU Athletics staff," Messerly said. "We really try to focus on partnerships and us all being one team so that we get buy-in and so that everyone has the same goal to make the facility the best it can possibly be when those gates open."

April Messerly, executive senior associate athletics director for capital projects, facilities, and event management, WVU Athletics (WVU Photo/Brian Persinger)

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Months before kickoff, work was already underway behind the scenes. Dedicated cleaning vendors begin pressure washing every surface as early as June, while the staff handle concession load-ins, perform repairs across premium seating areas, and wrap up deferred facility projects.

For Messerly, career success relies on strong preparation, detailed checklists, and real-time execution. Her unit routinely has dry runs during August team scrimmages to stress-test conference-mandated technologies - such as sideline tablets, coaches' helmet communications, and the officials' audio system - before thousands of fans flood into the stadium on game day.

"We really thrive on planning, checklists, and lessons learned," Messerly said. "We really, really work hard on those things so that hopefully we've captured everything. If you have a good list and you're testing things in advance, hopefully you've done your due diligence and you feel good."

Over her decades-long tenure, Messerly's unit has grown into the central hub for WVU Athletics, managing every home event across campus - from high-capacity matchups at the football stadium and Hope Coliseum to the logistics of hosting other sports competions like tennis, soccer, and baseball.

"The best analogy I've ever heard for us is when you hire a wedding planner to make sure everything runs flawlessly and coordinates all the things. That's us, just for home events," Messerly said. "Obviously, the scale for football is a lot greater with 60,000 people than maybe some of our Olympic sports, but we still go through the same sort of exercise."

From months of preparation to real-time problem-solving on game day, April Messerly and her team focus on the details that help create memorable experiences for Mountaineer fans. (WVU Photo/Brian Persinger)

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Whether fine-tuning metal detector placements to prevent signal interference, positioning trash cans to optimize concourse flow, or running game day operations meetings with agendas stretching over a dozen pages, Messerly focuses on small details fans rarely notice unless something goes wrong.

She takes pride in fan-focused projects, like the concourse expansions at Milan Puskar Stadium and Hope Coliseum, and looks forward to upcoming developments like the new West Tower project.

That dedication to behind-the-scenes excellence shone brightly when she challenged her team during sellout crowds at the NCAA women's basketball games and baseball regionals to step back and absorb their impact.

"I said, 'Look, just look around. Don't watch this game right now. Look around and think about being intentional right now and think about the role that you had in creating this experience and this memorable moment for these fans,'" Messerly recalled. "Let's control the controllables is what we always try to focus on. We can't control the outcome on the field, but we're going to do everything else to control what we can off the field."

April Messerly works behind the scenes to coordinate the facilities, vendors, technology, and logistics that help bring WVU Athletics home events to life. (WVU Photo/Brian Persinger)

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Those on the outside looking in would quickly see that her career is defined by flexibility, hard work, and an unwavering commitment to the Mountaineer community.

"It's about the hustle and the grind of what we do as a staff - not being afraid to get dirty, not being afraid to get in it and fix and help," Messerly said. "One minute we could be out grinding and hustling in the field setting up 50 bike racks around the gate and then in the next hour we're going to be talking to the chief of staff from the visiting team. Knowing that we touch every aspect of game day is what makes me really proud."

She initially came to WVU for graduate school for sport management.

"It was still a relatively new major at the time with fewer opportunities nationally," she said. "This graduate program is respected across the country, and I was fortunate enough to be accepted here in it. With that came a graduate assistantship, which was amazing for my education and growth in the field. Following my graduate assistantship, a position opened and I was hired to remain full time.

"This will be my 27th year. There are probably pros and cons to being in the same department for that amount of time, but I am grateful for all my years here at WVU and in Athletics."

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