Central Connecticut State University Manager

Matt Stevens former head manager at CCSU wrote:

 Upon attending Central all I did was contact the Director of Ops and told him I was interested in becoming a manager. He said great come on in the office and we'll meet. I did that and the rest is history!

During one of my years as the head manager I had two other managers working with me but this past season I only had one.

My responsibilities ranged in everything from pre-practice set up, making sure water is full, balls are full with enough air etc... during practice I did the scoreboard and time clock, taking stats, water, towels, pre-season. I filmed practice once in a while sharing duties with other managers. I cleaned  up and put the stuff away after practice. Arrived 1 hour early to all practices and 2 hours early to all home games in which I got the bench ready, film set up for games where I sometimes did the filming sharing duties with the rest of the managerial crew. Did water and towels during the game. Made copies of game DVD's after the game and exchanged with other teams. I was the only manager to travel on the road. I was in charge of film session set up, laundry, post game food order, water and towels during games and sometimes filmed.... And everything else in between with miscellaneous tasks.

I became a successful manager by taking my job serious, taking my time with my tasks if time allowed to make sure everything was done properly. I worked hard at everything...sometimes running around going crazy to do something here and there. I was very enthusiastic and energetic and stayed positive which helped. Because of those efforts I was awarded the Joe McGinn award from my head coach at the end of the season which is given to an individual who works hard, cares about others, and never complains. The award is named after a former UConn manager and also avid supporter of CCSU Men's Basketabll. He died in his 20's from illness complications.

I have been given alot of advice as a manager, everyone has told me keep working hard, etc etc.. but in my course of being a basketball manager one piece of advice that stood out the most was during a road trip down to Monmouth University in NJ...it was very early in the morning and I decided to take a walk on the beach boardwalk and I was standing looking at the ocean and this old man who I would say was in his 70's came up to me who was going for a morning walk too. I began to talk to him, I told him I was the manager from Central and that we had a game that night vs. Monmouth. Not in exact words but he began telling me pretty much to never let anyone every get in the way of what you want to accomplish in life. If you want it bad enough, you must work hard to achieve goals. It does not matter what others think, all that matters is what you want. This is a moment I will always remember.

This past summer I worked at the Howie Dickenman Basketball Schools at Central, Jim Calhoun Basketball Camp, Mustang Basketball Camp (Immaculate High School, Danbury, CT), Five Star Basketball Camp, Fairfield University, and the Connecticut Basketball School.

Well the biggest game I've been part of was our NEC semi-final game vs. Long Island University this past season... even tho we lost, it was the most important and biggest game I've been apart of. My most favorable would have to be our trip to play @ Arizona State a few years ago when James Harden was there.

This past spring I finished up coaching boys AAU U15 where I had a blast and it was my 1st real coaching job. This year I will assist either Western Connecticut State University this season or my local high school while applying for graduate assistant positions for the following year.