When you think of college basketball teams, you think about the exciting players, the big victories, and the successful coaches. However, there are unsung heroes within every program: The student managers.
The University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team has ten of them. Their job is to assist the players and coaches in any way they can, whether it’s rebounding for players throughout the day, mopping the sweat off the floors, cutting up game-films for coaches, and many more tasks.
Managers are a crucial part of the program and without them it wouldn’t operate as smoothly. James Pollard has been the head basketball manager at Northern Iowa for two years, and has been a part of the program for four. “Without managers, programs wouldn’t be as efficient,” said Pollard. “More work would be put on the assistants which is less time that they have to help our team be better.”
The day in the life of a manager varies based on what the team needs. There’s not one day that is going to be the same. Managers must stay ready throughout the course of the school day, as they may be called upon to do a task.
“If I’m not in class I’m kind of on call if a player needs to workout or if a coach would like to run a workout they can call or text me,” said Northern Iowa senior manager Alex Buttenhoff.
It is strongly encouraged that players on the basketball team get shots up at some point during the week. Some players even have a go-to manager to call or text when they need to practice.
The managers have to embrace a “first one in, last one out” mentality. The job includes early morning practices and cleaning up after games.
“Some mornings we have to get there at 5:45 or 6,” sophomore manager Colin Cronin said. “For afternoon practices we usually get out around 6 or 6:30 p.m.”
Being a manager is a tough task that contains doing a lot of the dirty work. You may ask why dothey do it? There’s a deeper meaning involved.
“I want to get into coaching,” said Cronin. “Being a manager for the basketball team helps me out a lot with that aspiration by getting to learn the game and how the ins and outs of college basketball work.”
When asked about their long term goals, current Northern Iowa managers James Pollard and Alex Buttenhoff also mentioned they want to get into some aspect of coaching. Having manager experience can play a huge role in getting into the coaching world, as head-managers often get offered graduate assistant positions.
Through all the time spent watching practice, rebounding for players, cutting film, the night before the game is when the managers get to show off their basketball skills.
They call it “The Manager Games.” Two managers from Michigan State started it back in 2016, and it has become a nationwide phenomenon throughout the college basketball world.
“Manager games are a super fun and creative way to give back to managers as a whole,” said Northern Iowa Buttenhoff. “Being able to interact with managers and staff members of other programs is very cool.”
Throughout the season records are kept track of. At the end of the top sixty-four teams in the country get put into a bracket. The first few rounds are fan voting on X. The remaining eight teams get the opportunity to play it out at the Final Four fan fest for a chance at the title.
Being a student manager means something more than just a job title. To them, it’s meeting new people, gaining experience, and being a part of something bigger than themselves.
“There’s some days I wonder what I would do if I wasn’t a manager,” said Pollard. “Just being a part of the program and being a small tiny part of winning is a special feeling.”
