Whenever I’m asked what my favorite part of BC is, my answer is invariably the fact that BC has it all: the academics, the social life, the athletics, the Jesuit ideals, the sense of community. We have a world-renowned faculty, a great study abroad program, a semester full of tailgating and football, and a consistently good hockey program. We get to experience all four seasons, although we suffer through some for a little bit longer than others. We have a day off from school in April for the epic Marathon Monday. Boston College is not too big and it’s not too small. In the words of Goldie Locks, it’s just right.
Since arriving at BC in the fall of 2009, I have surrounded myself with great roommates, friends, classes, and extra-curriculars. From day one, I’ve been busy running from one activity to the next – one work-study to another job to volunteering to 4Boston reflection to my favorite table at Mac. It was on day one, too, though, that that I met Kerri Shields, the freshman basketball sensation already set in her ways at BC after a summer of workouts and living on campus with the team. Knowing how much I would miss basketball and the role it played in my life in high school, I asked Shields if there was anything I could do with the team to keep myself involved. “We’re looking for managers!” she said, and the rest is history.
I became a manager of the BC women’s basketball immediately first semester freshman year and I’ve been one ever since. The job responsibilities are simple on the surface – managers are responsible for one to two practices a week. We set up a cooler of water, a cooler of ice, and twelve water bottles for the girls on the team to last throughout the two or two-and-a-half hour practice. The court gets set up with a rack of basketballs, a few dry erase boards for the coaches to draw out plays, and two football pads to add a little something extra to the defense. Managers run the clock to keep the practice on schedule, although it usually doesn’t stay that way, and we jump into drills when the coaches need us to. On game days, our responsibilities are a bit greater. Managers set up our own team’s locker room, the visiting team’s locker room, and the officials’ locker room with the necessary items – water, heating pads, Powerade, towels, ice. We’re available at shoot-around for our team and the visiting team to do whatever anyone needs us to do, and later we’re responsible for setting up both benches with items for the game.
And then it’s game time. Ever wonder who the well-dressed guys and girls are at the end of the bench distributing towels and water bottles at every timeout and substitution at the men’s and women’s basketball games are? And I’m sure you’ve always wondered who those great-looking people are who sit under the bench and wipe up the sweat after the 7’ Dennis Clifford or the 6’3’’ Katie Zenevitch crashes to the ground? And you might not see them, but there are also a few extraordinarily talented people who go to the very back row of Conte Forum to tape and break down the game for BC, the visiting team, and for the referees’ use.
But those are just a few of our job responsibilities. Additionally, managers are the people who carry the equipment bags on road trips. We travel with the team to make sure everything runs smoothly on the road. We pick up the trash off the bus and sometimes put dirty laundry in our own carry-on so there’s no overweight fee on the team’s luggage. We are the first people on the bus and the last people off, the ones who set up the film showing at the hotel, and keep our things and (barely) sleep in the “go-to-when-you-need-a-snack” room. We meet the opposing team managers, sometimes run around like chickens with our heads cut off looking for the visiting school’s facilities when a headband breaks or someone needs a Powerade, and we clean up the locker room when the scores are settled and the game is over.
But still, those are not our only jobs, and those are not the reasons why I continue to dedicate my time to the job. I’m a manager of the women’s basketball team not because I love to clean up after people my own age or because I love watching clip after clip of the same player making lay-ups to compile film for the team to watch. I’m a manager of the BC women’s basketball team because I love the BC women’s basketball team, and because I love basketball in general! I love the other managers I work with and I love forming relationships with the girls on the team. I love that after three years I can joke with the coaching staff about how bad I am at breaking down film. I love the relationship I’ve built with Shields over the fact that we’re the only two members of the class of 2013 left standing in the women’s basketball program and I love the relationship it’s led us to build outside the walls of Conte. I love walking into Conte Forum and seeing the familiar faces of the athletic trainers, the TeamOps staff, and the Media Relations people. I love the connections I’ve made with our own athletic trainer and Media Relations director. I love that I have enough Under Armour gear to dress in it for at least a month without washing a single article. I love the locker room conversations, pre-game meals, breakfast buffets on road trips, and the laughs at the gate before boarding a flight.
Being a manager for the women’s basketball team, or the men’s basketball team, or any team at BC is not glamorous. It’s not high-paying. It’s usually not even very rewarding. We’re not student-athletes on scholarships, regardless of how many hours a week we spend in Conte. But I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I may not be on the team – I don’t practice for 2-3 hours a day, lift weights, attend study hall, travel at least once or twice a week, watch hours of film, study a scouting report, feel the wear of a season on my ankles and knees and elbows and shoulders and hips and feet. But I still feel proud when we win and disheartened and frustrated when we lose. Managers are a different type of teammate. We’re the 13th man – the utility player. The ones that make it happen behind the scenes. “What would we do with our loops on trips?” Korina Chapman, BC 2014 and women’s basketball player asked. “Who would get our water? Shoot, without you guys, I’d be lost.” And maybe that’s not much, but it’s enough.
So the next time you’re at a basketball game or watching one on TV (but you should really go to a BC basketball game…really, do it), pay special attention to how hydrated the players are staying, how nicely the bench is set up, and how quickly the players receive their towels – pay attention and attribute it to the extremely good-looking and well put-together people at the end of the bench and in the chairs under the basket. We might not be the ones to score the game-winning shot or grab the game-ending steal, but if we never brought the basketballs down to the court in the first place, the game wouldn’t have been able to start anyway, right? And when you think about it that way, the 13th man seems a bit more important than it sounds.