Senior Ben Ey walks onto the field with his team, preparing to start the game. As the team huddles up, Ey gets in the middle of them to give his pre-game speech, one of the ways Ey helps out the lacrosse team as the men’s varsity lacrosse manager.
Lacrosse is not the only team with a manager though. According to athletic director Larry Dukes, lacrosse, football, field hockey, basketball, wrestling, and swimming all have managers. “Managers are hugely important,” Dukes said. “Most teams are budgeted for only two coaches and it’s tough for a coach to do all the jobs during competition.”
“Very few teams have managers but we’d love to have more,” Dukes said. “One reason there aren’t many managers is because 72 percent of our student body plays sports.” “Students that are athletes that want to play a sport can play in any season. If they don’t make one team they can make another.” This does not leave many extra students to be managers. Dukes said that most of the managers come in the winter, since that season has the least number of sports.
“We are trying to make [sports managing] more attractive to students,” Dukes said. “You get a varsity letter and at one point we tried to give service hours but that never happened. Coaches are asking kids in their classes to help and players are asking friends.”
Ey began managing the lacrosse team midway into this season after about three or four games. The team needed someone to come and record statistics and Ey stepped up to the job. Ey does more than just record stats though. “I give the teams motivational speeches to get them fired up,” Ey said. “I don’t go to the practices but I do go to every game, home and away.”
“[Managing] is a good thing because if [it didn’t happen] the coach would have to keep statistics and manage all the players alone,” Ey said. “I love doing it [managing]. The boys are great to work with and it is a lot of fun. If you enjoy lacrosse and understand the game, then definitely do it.”
Ey said managing the team is not too tough. “[Managing] is pretty easy to keep up with. I miss something once in a while but not too often,” Ey said.
Sophomore Rawlison Zhang manages the women’s varsity lacrosse team. “I started because I enjoyed watching lacrosse and wanted something to do in the spring since I did not play any spring sports,” Zhang said.
“I enjoy getting out of class early and it is a pretty fun thing to do.” Zhang said the hardest part is keeping stats accurate and helping coaches. He believes that the team can use more help as far as managers go. “I definitely need help. The team is really nice and they are all awesome. Definitely do it.”
Some teams have more than one manager as well. Junior Alex Kane manages the wrestling team in the winter along with sophomore Merina Novak. Basketball also has multiple managers.
“I began freshman year because coach Watson told me I had to be either a wrestler or a manager,” Kane said. “I keep the book for all the matches, run the clock, and help keep the wrestlers in line.” Kane goes to every meet and also says the job is not too hard. “I love doing it.”