University of Minnesota Athletics
Behind The Scenes: Gopher Student Managers
2/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Hours before the tipoff between Michigan and Minnesota at Williams Arena on February 11, all eight student managers for the Gopher men’s basketball team are already filling coolers, laying out jerseys, setting up cameras, and making sure the game goes as smoothly as possible for players and coaches.
Behind the scenes, these eight students at the University of Minnesota, six undergraduates and two graduates, allow Coach Tubby Smith and his staff to focus on the game at hand. The student managers for the 2009-2010 season are freshman Eric Lutz, junior Ryan Wieland, seniors Andre Phillips, Ben Siebert, Tyler Biwan and graduate students Bryan Bender, Nick Janasik and Dan DeWitt. The following accounts for the daily lives of these eight managers as they do all of the little things to make the Gopher Basketball program successful.
HOME GAME DAY
About 90 minutes before tipoff, the student managers are on the court helping the players warm up. The student managers, who are supplied with the same warm up gear as the players, take turns darting passes to players like Devron Bostick and Lawrence Westbrook, who are warming up with long-range jumpers. When the clock hits 50 minutes to game time at Williams, the student managers are already in their suits and back on the court.
During the game, they are about as close to the action as you can get. Each manager has duties such as having stools ready for timeouts, retrieving stat sheets for the coaches and even providing water for the referees. Prior to the game, the group prepares the visiting locker room and the officials locker rooms and sets all of the Gopher players’ lockers with the necessary uniforms and equipment for the game.
After the game is over, the work is just beginning for the managers. You can find them washing the team uniforms, cleaning the locker room and cutting and analyzing the final film from the game and preparing for the next game. Bender and Janasik return to the Bierman Field Athletic Building offices where they cut and break down the film from the game. The several hour process involves breaking down each offensive and defensive possession and burning DVDs so they will be ready for the coaches when they return to the office.
“Everything that we do is behind closed doors,”said Janasik, a graduate manager in his fourth season with the Gophers. “No one sees us in action and all of the work that goes into it. Some people might think that the players just go to practice. Someone has to set up, film the practice and clean up after practice. When someone falls on the court in practice, someone has to wipe up the sweat. Someone has to wash the uniforms.”
NORMAL PRACTICE DAY
Bender, the seasoned veteran of the group, noted that the position of working as a student manager isn’t just limited to game days. On a daily basis, the managers bring all of the necessary equipment, beverages and towels onto The Barn floor. They work in all team drills and spend countless hours rebounding and passing to players during shooting practice sessions.
“This position really is a full-time job. We are on call 24/7 to let players into the gym and work with them if needed. Practice usually starts at 8:00 a.m. every day and we’ll get there about an hour before to set up. It’s obviously a lot of work but the time flies. I’ve had the luxury of being in on every game and practice over the last five years and this year I have taken in part in a lot of the team meetings. When I’m not working practice or games, I help to prepare scouting edits or postgame film breakdown. You really feel like you are a part of this team and hold the same goals and aspirations that they do.”
Following each practice, the managers will clear the arena, re-stock all of the refrigerators, make sure that the team meal is ready and cut DVDs of the practice for the coaching staff.
During the week, the managers are also responsible for recording hundreds of other televised games. The basketball offices house a video unit complete with 12 DirecTV receivers and three televisions that record virtually every game broadcast on a television network. This process requires thousands of DVDs per season but assures that the Gophers will have game footage of any opponent that they could possibly face in the regular or postseason.
ON THE ROAD
Perhaps the time that the managers display their value the most is on the road. On each road trip, two graduate managers and two undergraduate managers head on the road to fill a vast list of responsibilities.
They day before the trip, the managers pack all of the uniforms, warm-ups, video equipment, drinks and make sure there is an ample supply of extra shoes and any other possible needs. When the bus arrives to take the team to the airport, the managers load the bus and unload when they get to the airport, where they get to load the plane.
On the road, the managers also take on some of the most unglorious, yet important jobs. “We have to store all of the equipment in our hotel rooms in addition to loading and unloading the buses,” Bender said. “We also make sure that all of the players are where they are supposed to be, whether it’s a meal or a team function.”
Despite the list of duties on the road, the managers consider the travel one of the many perks to the job. “I have been able to travel with the team to the Big Ten Tournament four times, to every Big Ten campus and trips to Florida, California and Arizona,” Bender noted. “It’s really a great experience to work with the staff when we are on the road and be a part of something bigger than myself.”
The various jobs they perform during the games or on the road provide great experience for what it’s like to work as a basketball coach or in basketball operations, fields that many of the managers hope to someday go in to.
Bender, who is finishing a masters degree in kinesiology this May, hopes that this position can eventually lead to his dream job: a Division I basketball coach. A great example of a student manager success story is that of Steve Goodson, the Minnesota’s current Special Assistant to the Head Coach. Goodson was a student manager at the University of Kentucky for Coach Smith from 2001-2005. Goodson has worked as Coach Smith’s assistant for the last four years, the first year coming in Coach Smith’s last year in Kentucky.
Freshman Eric Lutz has put himself in the same position as Bender was in four years ago. Lutz, a sports management major, hopes to travel the same path as Goodson.
“I want to work in basketball someday and eventually be a coach. I know that being around a team, especially a Division I team like Minnesota will help me move in my career in sports. I am definitely going to try and stick with the team all four years here and maybe beyond if I head into graduate school right away.”
Being around all aspects of the program has some other advantages as well. The managers receive the same team-issued gear as the players and have the chance to develop relationships with the coaches and players. “Having friendships with the players is one of the best things about this job,” Janasik said. “People just see them as basketball players but in reality they are just down to earth guys. We have great relationships with the players. We feel like team members, but we just don’t play in the games.”
