Growing up in Madison, I spent every Saturday in the fall with my parents at Camp Randall watching Badger football games and my winter evenings in the Kohl Center for Badger basketball games. My freshman year of college, I moved to campus, which is only a 10-15 minute drive from my parents' house, and wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do yet. It was late my freshman year that I learned about the student-manager position, as a guy who graduated from my high school several years before I did and was a manager (he is now our director of operations). I stopped in the office, filled out an application, went through a couple of interviews, and landed the job.
We have 17 managers at Wisconsin, which is a shock to most managers from other schools. Each manager works 2-3 practices per week, as well as working 3-4 hours in the office helping the secretaries with recruit mailings, phone calls, and much more. In addition to those office hours, each manager is scheduled one night a week in which we record our opponents' games for our coaches. During the season, depending on how many games we have, I'd estimate that each manager works about 30 hours each week.
For the 2011-12 season, I will be entering my fourth year at Wisconsin, but my third year as a manager. I plan on coming back for the 2012-13 season as a manager in order to gain more experience and be with the program for one more year. I am majoring in journalism, communication arts, and getting a certificate in women's studies, but after I graduate, I'm not sure I want to continue in the field of journalism. Ultimately, my goal is to coach or work in athletic administration. I realized that instead of writing for a newspaper and being an objective sports write, I want to stick with a program (hopefully an NCAA men's basketball team) and commit my time to one team.
Being a successful manager means being selfless and putting all of your heart into the program. You have to be willing to do a lot of work for little show. In order to be a successful manager, you have to be available to coaches at all times and gain their trust. Relationships and trust is key in this job. The best piece of advice someone gave me as a manager was from our former director of operations from my first year as a manager. "Be ready to put in a lot of time and effort and do a lot of things you won't get recognized for right away. Do those things and don't expect a pat on the back, but if you keep it up it will pay off in the end".
During my first two seasons at Wisconsin, there are two games that really stick out as the most memorable at the Kohl Center. In December 2009, we hosted Duke for the Big Ten / ACC Challenge and won the game and the challenge. To have such a great program like Duke in our building and coming out with a win was probably the most memorable game in my entire life as a Badge fan, and I was lucky to be right on the floor for that experience. The second game that sent chills down my spine was this past season when we hosted the then-undefeated, then No. 1 Ohio State. After being down 15 points with about 13 minutes left in the game, our point guard, Jordan Taylor completely took over the game and hit back-to-back 3's and shot lights out on the Buckeyes. We ended up winning by four points, sending Ohio State home with their first loss of the season.
I'm really looking forward to beginning my third year as a manager at Wisconsin; the season can't come fast enough! For the incoming managers or any managers in the nation, my advice to them is to put in as much as you can into the program and show your administration and coaches how much you want to be where you are. Enjoy your experiences, build relationships, and work your way to where you want to end up.
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