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Over the last several years, many sports programs at NS have implemented student managers to help the team by doing numerous tasks, such as setting up equipment as well as making sure equipment is acceptable, getting water for the team, and taking stats or running the clock at games. While the service that student managers do is extremely appreciated, it is often overlooked.
“[The managers] have been really good at going above and beyond and making it a better experience for the kids,” said head football coach Rhett Bird. “And that’s really what they do. They just keep us organized and on our toes and keep things flowing the way they should. Anytime that I can give more of my time to an athlete, then of course we are going to be better off in the end.”
While keeping the team organized and running smoothly, managers also provide a set of hands for many different tasks.
“I think they are helpful,” said head volleyball coach Rickie Stewart. “We always want to have kids involved, so I think it helps them and it benefits us as well because it’s another set of hands to help us with tasks and stuff.”
Besides giving the coaches more time for the players and keeping the team organized, both of which benefit the program itself, the managers are able to be involved and learn something new.
“Anything to get somebody involved in something that they normally wouldn’t be involved in I think is a benefit. The more student involvement we have the better,” Stewart said. “I don’t think it is a bad thing to give kids opportunities to learn things they normally wouldn’t have learned and to be part of something or feel ownership over something important.”
Besides getting to learn another skill, student managers are also able to become friends with their peers.
“I get to know more people around the school. It also expands my ability to do something else,” said boys tennis manager Alexis Hansen.
While managing a sport can let a student learn something new, it can also provide them with a new perspective of a sport.
“I like being able to do something other than my sport, and it just gives me a view of what other people have to go through in their sports,” Hansen said.
Another one of the benefits of managing is being able to be right there in the moment with the players.
“It’s definitely a different experience because being in the student section was really fun, but being on the sidelines is a whole [different thing]. You can see everything,” said football manager Isabelle Mitchell.
While student managers are able to gain a lot from their managing experience, many people don’t recognize just how much the students are doing for their friends.
“They are there providing a service for their friends and that’s a big deal to me,” said head tennis coach Matt Braithwaite. “Anytime you have somebody your own age who is willing to serve you, that’s a big deal. So I think you need to remember that they don’t have to be here. They could obviously be doing whatever they want, so the fact that they have chosen that, to me that’s important.”
While many coaches are appreciative of managers, they have to be careful when approving students to manage.
“They can either be really useful and really helpful, or they can be just a waste and just another person to worry about,” said head softball coach Landon Bailey. “I think it just depends on the person. I think being careful and choosing your managers is very important. It can’t just be anybody. They have responsibilities that they need to do, and they need to take care of. I think if they do those things, they can be very useful and very helpful, but I also think it can go the other way.”
Though it may be a toss of the coin of whether or not a student is a good manager, the majority of coaches at NS have had good experiences and productively utilize their managers.
“[Managers] are awesome. I think that every coach in the school should have a manager because… it keeps things flowing, practice runs better, it gets kids involved in the school,” Bird said. “I think that we should, as coaches, do a better job of reaching out to kids that we know are interested in sports or maybe don’t make the team.”
