Bowling Green State University Manager

Kyle Renick, a 2008 graduate of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. While at BGSU, Renick majored in Sports Management and was a four-year team manager. Renick served as head manager in his final two seasons, the '06-'07 and '07-'08 seasons.

Following graduation Renick interned with the men's basketball program at the University of South Florida. After leaving USF, Renick became an Assistant Coach at Defiance College, a Division III college in Ohio.

Check out Renick's post:
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My journey being a manager at Bowling Green State University started in September of 2004, my freshman year. I was a Sports Management major and while walking to my dorm room one day, I read a sign on one of the dorm lobby walls about becoming a manager for the basketball team. After seeing the flyer I called Assistant Coach Marty Richter and went and met with him at the gym that night. The next day I was a BGSU manager.

My freshman year was really interesting as we competed for the MAC Title, coming up short in the last week of the season. Working for Coach Dakick, who now is seen as a commentator for ESPN and the Big Ten Network, was unlike anything I had ever imagined. His way of coaching, derived from his college coach, Bobby Knight, got my attention quickly as he's a very in your face and vocal coach. After attending practices for a few months, I licked into an opening to travel for the first game of the season to DePaul. It was a great experience and sold me on the fact that I wanted to continue to be a manager and grow my responsibilities. The most awkward and definitely the most exciting experience came when I was under the basket on the last home game of the season during warmups. Mawel Soler went up for a routine dunk prior to the officials coming on the court. What was a routine dunk ended up delaying the whole game as he shattered the backboard right on my head! The game was delayed for over an hour but ended well as we hit a buzzer beater to beat Miami of Ohio. I made it out of the arena without being injured and also took home a tape of the memory.

My responsibilities continued to grow during my sophomore year, learning from then head manager Nat Weichers. The season was a rather dismal that saw a lot of tough nights as we tried to compete after graduating the majority of our scoring the season before.

 My junior year was the season where I really embraced my position of being a manager. Along with another manager that had been involved as long as I had, we became Co-Head Managers. The season would become the end of Coach Dakich's tenure at BGSU and was an extremely successful season. Coach Dakich knew I was very interested in coaching and told me that taking my responsibility for our video editing would be a great experience for myself in the long run. I learned our new video system and became completely responsible for all of the video editing, game filming, and film exchange. Video became my life and I often found myself in the office well into the night. Sometimes, I even took everything home to my apartment where I lived with some managers and we would knock out video work all night! At the time, my job also consisted of managing our other 10 managers and their schedules. My typical day consisted of visiting the office before my first class and discussing the day's activities with the coaching staff. Between classes I would work on video exchange and practice preparation. I would attend practice daily, participate in the first few drills that the coaches needed help with, then it was off to the film room to do more work there. I attended almost all of the games home and away for that season. We ended up with a losing record that ended our coaching staff being relieved of their duties which was a very hard and awkward time for all of us involved in the transition.

Between coaching staffs, I really questioned whether I wanted to be a manager and start over with a new staff. We had a strong feeling that one of our assistants would be promoted and that life wouldn't change all that much. However, one day in March of 2007, I received a call from our SID informing me that a coach had been hired, that his name was Louis Orr, and that I needed to attend the press conference. I had never heard of Coach Orr, and immediately started dong research on him. His resume was impressive and once I met him he completely captivated me. I continued to be even more involved with the program and grew very close with the new staff. We enjoyed a very descent season considering the transition from one coach to another. The season, which was my senior year, was extremely memorable. I had the opportunity to meet one of our most prominent basketball alumni, Antonio Daniels. I also enjoyed senior night when we beat #20 in the country Kent State.

 Being a manager at BGSU put me in a lot of positions I wouldn't have been otherwise. I had the opportunity to be a big part of a Division I program. I also had the opportunity to travel all over the country, meet all sorts of people, and saw some great basketball over my four years of voluntary labor. The opportunity didn't stop there. Following my senior season, my experience at BGSU made my resume impressive enough to land myself an internship at the University of South Florida with their basketball program. After USF, all my experiences helped me land a coaching position at Defiance College, a Division II school in Ohio.

Although I've got out of coaching for a while due to some family instances, my goal is that my experiences will allow me to get back into basketball. I continue to stay in contact with all of the coaches I've meet along the way in hopes of getting back on the sidelines one day!