Inside The Life Of A Rice University Manager

Adam Gierlach's Post:

 I grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco when our current Head Coach at Rice, Coach Ben Braun was still at Cal. One of my coaches at the time, Coach Barry Kleiman, is Coach Braun's best friend in life. I moved to New Jersey my junior year of high school and stayed in touch with Coach Kleiman. When I was looking to apply to colleges, I just wanted to find a good school where I would have the opportunity to either walk on, manage, or be involved with the team in some way. Coach Braun was hired at Rice, April of my senior year, after I had already been admitted to Rice. Once he accepted the position, it was a no-brainer to come to Rice. I loved the school, and with the connection to Coach Kleiman, I knew I would be available to be involved in the team in some way. Coach Kleiman contacted the staff at Rice, recommended me, and the position was mine.

We only have three total basketball managers at Rice and when I first started, there was only one other manager. I've heard of some schools having 20 or 30 managers and while we would certainly appreciate more help and a larger managerial crew, it was nice to be accepted into the position right away and be given legitimate responsibilities right away.

At Rice, we define the managers' job as doing everything in our power to ensure that the coaches coach and the players play everyday in a manner that lends itself to success, where the success is defined as doing every task to the best of one's abilities. So while the basic managerial responsibilities (laundry, setting up practice and workouts, rebounding for the players,  handling uniforms on the road etc.) fall under this category, our job is best defined by the phrase "other duties as assigned." Whatever a coach or player needs, unless it's immoral or illegal, it's our job to do it for them. I have other responsibilities outside of the daily managerial responsibilities. I am viewed by the staff as a staff member, and my role is almost that of a G.A.. I am directly involved in opponent scouting and game preparation, I serve as our recruit administrator organizing data, maintaining the recruit files, organizing daily schedules for coaches when they're on the road, assisting with our team scout, working out our guys, and I also have various video responsibilities. I post log to all of our games and prepare the video edits to show our players before games for about half our games.

My ultimate goal in life is to be an assistant D-1 coach by the age of 25 and a head D-1 coach by the age of 37. My goal is to be the best coach I can possibly be, but I believe that my skills allow me to be the best coach that ever lived. I want to have more championships than Coach Wooden, ore wins than Coach Knight (soon to be Coach K). Being the best coach I can be and being the best coach ever is something that consumes my thoughts at all times. I'm obsessed with it.

I come to work everyday just trying to work hard and make our program better. I wake up everyday scared to death that I woke up late, that I'm going to miss a responsibility and fail to help my team. But if we want to call it success, then my success as a manager is due to the situation and the people around my team. But if we want to call it success, then my success as a manager is due to the situation and the people around me in my time at Rice and growing up. Rice does not have a lot of managers, the program was transitioning with our new Head Coach, Coach Braun, so there was an atmosphere of building something and various holes in terms of daily responsibilities I could absorb and step into. Second, I've been very fortunate to have some great mentors and coaches who were willing to work with me when I succeed and showed me the ropes and how to be professional as a manager and somebody who works in college basketball. Specifically, our Associate Head Coach, Coach Louis Reynaud, our Assistant Coaches, Coach Mike Roberts and Coach Marco Morcos, our former administrative assistant and Director of Basketball Operations at USC, Ryan Hennick, and our trainer Dean Miller, have all been extremely influential in my success as a manager. Third, I have great parents who raised me the right way and instilled great values and morals within me. I also have great friends who are supportive of how much work I work and are willing to accommodate my unusual schedule. And we've had great managers during my time at Rice who keep my head on straight and allow me to focus on things beyond the daily managerial responsibilities. These things, more than anything I have done, are responsible for my success. The situation allowed me to be successful. The situation allowed me to be successful, the people around me mentored me, led me to the right direction, instilled the right values within me, and were supportive enough of me to stick with me through hard times. I have worked extremely hard during my time as a manager, that probably has something to do with my success. I have great mental toughness, that probably has something to do with it too. But the credit does not belong to me.

I've received many great pieces of advice as a manager. Coach Reynaud, who overseas the managers at Rice, has been my biggest influence as a manager. It wasn't always one piece of advice, but his instillation of a sense of service and doing things for others as what the managerial position is all about has always stayed with me. Ryan Hennick, formerly at USC, once said to me, you only need to do four things: "show up early, leave late, work hard, and lead by example." that quote has always stayed with me as well. Coach Buzz Williams at Marquette also has another great quote that I love: "The key to your success lies in your daily agenda. Never lose track of efficiency in your day." Coach Jim Fox from Davidson  has yet another quote that I think about a lot: "The perception of your competence lies in how you handle problems. Is it a brush fire or does it blow up?" There are countless other pieces of advice and wisdom's I have received throughout the years from the people around me.

I have never aspired to be like any other person except for myself in the basketball world. There are many people I draw influence from and hope to resemble in some way, but I do not look at any person and want to be like them. I want to be the best that I can be and I want to be better than everybody. Like I said, that does not mean I don't have coaches I look up to, but I'm concerned with my own seslf and being the best I can be.

I have worked summer camps throughout the years. I have worked our camps here at Rice, and I've worked at USC. I have also worked 5 Star Basketball Camp the last three summers in Waco, TX and most recently, Duncanville, TX.

The most memorable game during my time at Rice was our victory over Memphis, 67-52, on our home floor, February 19, 2011. I was heavily involved in the game preparation for this game and four our team to put everything together was a great experience. We controlled the game from the opening tip, out-toughed them, out-worked them, out-defended them. We took the out of everything they wanted to do and just put on a clinic defensively, rebounding, and out-working an opponent. The game was not as close as the score indicated. We had struggles to put together complete games and we definitely showed the team we are capable of being from that game. It was Rice's first victory every over Memphis and just a great win for our program.

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