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How to be a basketball manager


College Basketball Manager Requirements | Work

By Chron Contributor Updated September 16, 2021

They arrive at the gym an hour before the players and depart long after practice ends, and do whatever is necessary for the team's well-being. The job of college basketball team manager requires serious dedication as managers must have the passion for the game. If you have an interest in working as a team manager, you must understand all that the job requires, and you must prepare yourself for success.

Academic Requirements

Basketball team managers generally attend the college as students. These student managers must maintain good academic performance in their classes. If they fail to maintain satisfactory grades, coaches may remove them from the position or suspend them. Team managers also must attend classes unless they are traveling with the team. They must notify teachers in advance of scheduling conflicts and arrange for submitting assignments at other suitable times.

Basketball Team Manager Job Description

Coaches and players spend their time focusing on practice and games. This leaves the team manager to deal with many of the behind-the-scenes organizational tasks. He arranges meals, packs players’ bags for road games, cleans uniforms, orders and maintains equipment, carries and fills water bottles, reserves gyms for road practices and corresponds with hotel personnel, bus drivers and managers for opposing teams. As ESPN reports, mostly the job is behind-the-scenes prep work and cleanup. With dozens of tasks to tackle each day, the manager must have strong organizational skills. He must manage time well and be orderly.

Broad Basketball Knowledge

Team managers must possess a broad knowledge of the game. These student managers must understand all signals used by basketball officials, and they must be able to follow the game. They must understand the terminology used in basketball, and they must understand the rules of college basketball and the rules of the National College Athletic Association. For example, the NCAA manager is forbidden from performing coaching activities and from participating in practice drills or scrimmages.

Technology Skills

The team manager uses software programs and a laptop or tablet computer to keep statistical information from all of the team’s games and practices. Coaches use stat reports to monitor the team’s performances. Team managers also send statistics to the school’s sports information director, who sends statistics to local and national media, and use social media to report breaking news and generate interest in the team. Team managers produce and edit game and practice video, too. There's a lot of problem solving using basketball simulation game technology.

Behavioral Requirements

Student managers must exhibit proper conduct when representing the team. They must follow the rules of the team, the NCAA and the university or college. Team managers must show sportsmanship, respectfulness and courtesy, and they must adhere to team policies for dress and appearance. Team managers must not involve themselves in gambling on college sports and must not provide any information to individuals involved in gambling on college sports. They cannot violate local, state or federal laws, and team managers must follow team rules regarding the consumption of alcohol in and out of season.

References

  • NCAA: Rules and Regulations
  • ESPN: The Tales of a College Basketball Student Manager

The life of a college basketball student manager

Jul 9, 2015

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Four years ago, as Duke was prepping for its Countdown to Craziness, Ryan Kelly was wheeling a tub of Gatorade down a hallway in Cameron Indoor Stadium. He lost control of the dolly he was using and the orange liquid spilled everywhere -- just as Mike Krzyzewski rounded the corner.

"Oh my god. I thought I was going to get fired,'' Kelly said.

It's not easy getting a manager recruiting gig. Here's some of what it will require. Courtesy of Michigan State

For the record, Krzyzewski laughed, turned to someone and joked, "Must be a freshman."

His peers know his horror.

"You don't want to be late with anything at practice,'' Michigan State senior Andrew Novak said. "Coach [Tom Izzo] will yell, 'Let's go. Let's GO. LET'S GO.''

And so they scurry, this bastion of hoop servants who are often seen yet never cited, reacting like Pavlov's dogs to a timeout horn to set up chairs and distribute water bottles, towels and whiteboards.

They have been chosen from rigorous selection processes that include interviews, job shadows and even essays.

They are the few, the proud ... the managers?

Seriously?

"We do take our jobs seriously, but we have serious jobs,'' said Alessandro Sant'Albano, a Duke manager by way of Turin, Italy.

Was it really necessary for the Duke Blue Devils managers to protect an injured Tyus Jones from prying eyes with a curtain of towels as if he were a horse on a track after a catastrophic injury?

Do candidates for the Kentucky Wildcats really need to work camp to prove their worth?

To be water boys (and girls)?

The answer is yes, and yes.

Student managers might be the lowest rung on the athletic food chain, but they have become a vital cog in the basketball machine. And while being a real Cinderella in the NCAA tournament might require a lot of hard work and sweat (or mopping up someone else's) these menial jobs are coveted on-campus gigs because they have some serious fairy godmother benefits.

The obvious attraction is access (an insider's entre to big-name programs), but the less obvious attraction is ... also access. Most mangers have their eye on a future career in sports and have seen how their predecessors have parlayed the art of making Gatorade into full-time gigs.

The Duke managers are all smiles here, but the work isn't all fun and games. Actually, it's a lot of hard work. Courtesy of Mike Bradley/Duke Blue Planet

Brian DeStefano, former Duke manager, is now associate head coach at Harvard.

Mark Evans, now the equipment manager at Kentucky, was with Calipari at both Memphis and Kentucky as a student manager.

Katherine Vosters graduated from Wisconsin in 2013, after having served three years as a manager. She just finished her second season as the Badgers' director of basketball operations.

And then there are the Paugas, the patron saints of managers. Brian, the younger brother, turned his undergrad experience at Michigan State into an internship with the San Antonio Spurs. Eight years later, he's the team's director of scouting. His brother, Kevin, went from Spartan manager to a full-time director of operations position and owner of a well-read analytics report, the KPI.

So feel free to laugh at their earnest efforts as servants to their peers. They'll have the last laugh when they cash their first paychecks.

"I've seen how many guys have moved on,'' Novak said. "I saw this as an opportunity.''

Plenty of others do, too, but not everyone makes the cut. The odds, in fact, of becoming a manager at an elite program are about as stacked as the odds of playing for an elite program.

Each of the Final Four schools sift through hundreds of applications annually, choosing no more than three or four managers each year.

The application process at all four is rigorous. Michigan State includes job shadowing and an essay. Kentucky asks aspiring managers to work camp before inviting a few for interviews. Wisconsin holds mock workouts. Duke puts candidates through multiple rounds of interviews.

And so we pause here to ask again: Take this stuff a little seriously, people?

"You need people who are here for the right reason,'' said Evans, from Kentucky. "When I say that, the best way to explain what we do is we're the first people to turn the lights on and the last ones to turn the lights off. You have to want to do this.''

Kids who show up and want the perks -- the good seats on the bench, access to the inner workings of the big-name program, the gear, the travel, in other words, the "glamour" -- generally aren't chosen.

Because, as Vosters points out, that's a very small part of the job. Mostly it's behind-the-scenes prep work and cleanup. Often it's for little to no pay. Wisconsin managers receive a small stipend; Duke and Michigan State's groups get no pay at all.

Katherine Vosters parlayed her job as a manager into a bigger role with Wisconsin basketball. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Kentucky, on the other hand, has a scholarship fund for its managers, named after Bill Keightley, the school's beloved equipment manager of 48 years who died in 2008.

So instead of people looking for glitz and glamour, schools are looking for students who want to:

• Haul luggage onto planes and buses in the wee hours

• Fill and refill Gatorade tubs

• Cut and edit film until their eyes cross

• Chart hustle plays and other obscure stats at games

• Work camps in the summer

• Sacrifice weekends and holiday trips in exchange for practices

• Stand, as they do at Duke, just so far apart, ball tucked under one arm, other arm on hip, towel over shoulder.

In other words, people who are willing to do just about whatever they are asked to make life easier for basketball players their own age.

So who in the world are these people?

Most have a similar story.

Kelly grew up in Massachusetts, a self-described lifelong Duke fan with eyes on a career in physical therapy. He was invited to the staff of 12 as a freshman.

"I was the happiest kid in the world," he said. "I was running around the dorm like a nut.''

Now a rising senior, he headed to New York last month, invited by Justise Winslow for the NBA draft. In March, he'll take part in senior day, at Cameron Indoor Stadium, against North Carolina. His father, Terry, a factory worker, will be there (his mother passed away).

"It can't get better than that,'' he said.

Duke manager Ryan Kelly has been a part of the Blue Devils' staff since he was a freshman. Courtesy of Mike Bradley/Duke Blue Planet

Novak is from outside of Chicago, an ex-high school baseball and basketball player. He's in the Michigan State business school and would love a career in either college or professional sports. He's been tubing, pulled on a pontoon boat driven by a happily crazed Izzo, who was intent on whipping the boat so fast his managers would fly off into the water.

Vosters is a Wisconsin native, the daughter of season-ticket-holding parents who was never going to college anywhere but Madison. The lifelong Badgers fan allowed herself a moment to look down the bench this season, as the final seconds were ticking away in Wisconsin's upset of Kentucky.

"It's a feeling I can't describe,'' she said. "I knew how hard everyone on that bench had worked. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.''

A three-sport athlete in Elmira, New York, Evans had a high school friend who was a student manager at Alabama. With designs on a career in sports himself, he took a chance and went to Memphis, where he found the competition to take care of the basketball team wasn't too fierce. He signed up as a freshman, but a year later John Calipari was off to Kentucky.

"I was like, 'Uh-oh. Was this all for nothing?'" Evans said.

Instead, Evans asked Calipari if he could stay on staff if he also made the move to Lexington. Calipari agreed and Evans transferred.

In 2012, he was on the bench when the Wildcats won the national championship.

There has to be an outlier in every bunch.

That would be Sant'Albano, the curly-haired senior manager at Duke. His father was once the CEO of Juventus, one of the world's premier soccer teams, and is now international CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, a multibillion dollar commercial real estate firm.

And he spent the past year wiping up Jahlil Okafor's sweat?

"My family taught me hard work,'' he said. "They believe you have to start any job from the ground up to really know it.''

Ground level on a recent June day saw Sant'Albano giddy with triumph after the managers beat the campers in a game of knockout.

"We haven't won in eight years,'' he said. "We could sweep if we win the third session.''

He was serious.

They all are, serious about a job at which most of us would scoff.

But when they graduate with letters of recommendation from Bo Ryan, Izzo, Calipari and Krzyzewski, guess who will be laughing then?

Basketball club management

Basketball club management

1. Club manager.

Manager - first of all, a person who respects his university, wants to develop in the field of sports management and / or just loves basketball. It is important to understand that the job of a manager involves a wide range of responsibilities, ranging from administrative tasks related to the participation of the team in the ASB championship and the management of communities on social networks, and ending with working with partners and holding full-scale basketball events. It is on the quality of his work that the image of the club and the entire university depends.

Speaking of opportunities, it is important to understand that this is not only a good platform and experienced coaches. Students who set themselves high sports goals, like any other athletes, want to get into those clubs where there will be an appropriate atmosphere, where fans will drive the team forward, bright moments and victories will receive enough coverage and public recognition, and the club management will create the appropriate conditions to combine sports and study. All this is achieved through the serious and painstaking work of club managers, leagues, marketers, PR, journalists, SMM, media and other specialists.

2. Manager search

Before looking for a suitable person, it is important to clearly understand what he will do and what tasks he will face. It is worth noting that each potential manager may have his own motivation for working in the SBC (student basketball club), and different opportunities may also open up. Participation in the life of a basketball team, gaining new interesting experience or professional practice, increasing authority in front of the leadership of the university for active social work, receiving an additional scholarship or condition, developing basketball in a university, region, country, or simply being the center of a company of friends and like-minded people - anything can attract a person to become a SBC manager, it is important to understand what and convey accordingly.

  • Players

Many good managers are just players who decide to be useful to the team off the court. It is they who most often achieve the highest results, since they have "outrageous motivation." As a rule, in each university there are students who do not get into the composition due to high competition, but, at the same time, they really want to help the team in some other way. The coach is usually aware of all active basketball players in the university.

  • Friends and fans

Very often situations arise when one of the players called his friend, relative, classmate or just an acquaintance to watch and support the team’s game, and the invited guest was so imbued with the team and the atmosphere at the match that he began to go to all the games and actively cheer for the team . If a person is imbued with the values ​​of the team and shares its desire to achieve high sports results, then this is a great help to become a good manager of the student basketball club.

  • Student associations

An effective way to attract a manager to the club is to interact with various student associations at the university: student council, trade union committee or some other student clubs. Often it is these organizations that unite the most active students at the university who really want to somehow prove themselves, show what they are capable of and gain new interesting experience.

  • SSK

Almost every university today has student sports clubs that develop mass student sports with the help of ordinary students. Organizers of sports events and competitions, managers, photographers, videographers, journalists, SMMs, students who want to develop sports at the university and be involved in it gather there.

  • Social networks

Use social media. All students use social networks in one way or another. Compose an intriguing text and add an interesting photo from one of the games or draw an eye-catching picture with information about the opportunity to become a manager of a college basketball team. Ask to post your news in various large communities of the university (not only sports), team players to repost. Invite interested students for interviews, after which it will be possible to choose not one, but several managers for different areas of SBC activity, so you will assemble your team. Perhaps someone wants to be a photographer at matches, and someone wants to interview the team and write interesting articles, be a journalist, etc.

where to study, salary, pros and cons

Author: Professional Guide

Updated by

Basketball player is a professional basketball player. Such a team game is popular, first of all, in the USA. In Russia, it is somewhat inferior to football and hockey, but still quite in demand. By the way, the ProfGid career guidance center has recently developed an accurate career guidance test that will tell you which professions suit you, give an opinion about your personality type and intelligence.

  • Professional knowledge
  • Famous basketball players
  • Examples of companies with basketball vacancies
  • See also:

    Brief description: who is a basketball player?

    The basic rules of the game of basketball are usually known to everyone: two teams enter the field, the one that scores more points wins. Points are given for hitting the ball into a basket hanging at a height of 3.05 meters from the floor. The number of points that is counted for each hit depends on the distance from which the throw was made. In the process of moving around the field, players must dribble the ball, beating it off the floor, and not hold it in their hands.

    Features of the profession

    A professional sports career requires a lot of energy, effort, time and dedication. A basketball player must always be in good shape, his salary and popularity largely depend on the performance of his performance on the field, and he must work closely with other team members. The main duties of a basketball player are as follows:

    • Daily attendance at training.
    • Compliance with the regime of the day and nutrition.
    • Participation in matches.
    • Participation in non-match events of the club.
    • Regular medical examination, following the recommendations of the doctor and trainer.

    A basketball player must be prepared for the fact that he will periodically have to change the clubs for which he plays, participate in international competitions from his country, and even during the match, cooperate with different groups of players (frequent substitutions are very common in this game).

    Pros and cons of the basketball profession

    Pros
    1. Prestigious profession with a decent salary.
    2. Opportunity to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
    3. Opportunity to travel, communicate with representatives of different countries and peoples.
    4. The joy of victories and the support of the fans.

    See also:

    Cons
    1. The need for talent or extensive experience to gain recognition and sign expensive contracts.
    2. Negative emotions from defeats.
    3. Occupational diseases (herniated disc, knee problems, Schlatter's disease).
    4. Age restrictions on career length.

    Important Personal Qualities

    In order to successfully fill a basketball position and succeed in this field, an athlete must be in very good physical condition, must not have serious chronic diseases, must have excellent stamina, concentration, movement speed and reactions, perfect coordination. Most often, very tall athletes become successful basketball players. Analytical thinking, the ability to follow the strategy developed by the coach, make decisions quickly, and work together with the rest of the team members will also not interfere.

    Basketball training

    Russian universities and colleges do not offer basketball training as such. You can learn how to play basketball in sports schools, and then improve your skills in basketball clubs. In parallel, you can get a sports education (including to successfully work as a coach after completing a career in big-time sports). In this context, the specialty "Physical Education" in colleges (code 49.02.01) or the same name in universities (code 49.03.01). A certificate is sufficient for admission to a secondary school, in addition to it, the results of the Unified State Examination in the Russian language, biology and physics are required for admission to a university.

    Courses

    Stremlenie Basketball Club

    Thinking about where to get the profession of a basketball player, if you have the appropriate inclinations, is necessary from childhood. Therefore, most basketball schools offer training for children and teenagers. One of these schools is the Stremlenie basketball club, where individual and team trainings are held. Members of the club also take part in competitions.

    Best universities for basketball players

    1. MSPU
    2. RGSU
    3. MGOU
    4. RGUFKSMiT
    5. RGUFK them. P.F. Lesgafta
    6. RSPU im. A.I. Herzen

    Read also:

    Place of work

    Basketball players play for basketball clubs, national teams. At the end of their careers, they work as coaches (both in adult clubs and in children's sports schools).

    Salary of a basketball player

    The level of income of such an athlete directly depends on his talent, experience, professionalism and fame. The more useful a basketball player can bring to the club, the higher the salary will be offered to him.

    Basketball player salary for October 2022

    Salary information provided by hh.ru portal.

    Russia 100000-250000₽

    Career growth

    Building a career for a professional athlete is about improving your skills and getting more and more lucrative offers from clubs.


    Learn more