High school coaches work hard each season to help their team to improve. Between practices and games, they give it their best effort for their players to increase their skills. But the team managers are the ones who help to assist the team from behind the scenes.
The team managers are students who help to prepare the team for practices and games to run smoothly. Different sports have different tasks for their managers, but in the end, it all comes back to supporting the good of the team.
“It’s very helpful having a manager.” Football Coach Leif Engstrand says “there’s certain things that are very important for day to day tasks that maybe a coach doesn’t have time to handle.”
Senior Stella Holtz is entering her second season of managing the wrestling team
“It’s one of my favorite times of the year,” Holtz says. “I originally got into it because my brother had been wrestling all four years of high school and he asked me if I would want to be a manager for his senior year.” Being in her senior year now, she continued with her tradition.
Much like football, there is plenty to do in preparation for matches.
“There are around 400 people at these tournaments so getting around all 6 mats and focusing on getting each match filmed scored and coaches and wrestlers there on time is very confusing.”
After Holtz became a wrestling manager, other girls wanted to follow her her path and become a manager themselves
“The amount of girls wrestling was also increasing the year I joined and they all wanted me to join as well and be a manager” Holtz says .”It seemed like a really new and interesting opportunity and it turned out to be a good one”
The football season ends just as the football season begins. Training camps and practices start in early August in preparation for the upcoming season. This leaves managers with plenty of tasks to do in order to help the team to succeed.
“Practices in summer often focused on scrimmages, and other drills to get the player’s bodies ready for the season” says previous Football Manager Niamh Wick. “As a manager, our jobs stemmed from handing out water on those hot summer days, filming, or running the scoreboard”.
As the school year begins, practices and games are held after school. This leaves athletes and managers alike with busy schedules revolving around school, practice and games that were being held after school.
“Some nights were definitely tight and practices were spent with me sitting doing homework, but I found time to make it work” Wick says.
Having been an athlete previously, she is able to understand not only the physical aspects of the sport.
“Being an athlete myself gave me a better understanding of the mentality it takes to participate in a sport.” The mental aspects of the game can play as big of a role as the physical. Wick says, “from what I observed, football is definitely a very mental game and understanding that players were going to have very good days, and our bad days helped us approach each player with patience.”
