Student managers play critical role in Irish athletics
By JOHN BACSIK
Sports Writer
It's 6 p.m. on a Friday night. While most students are busy making their night's plans or walking over to the pep-rally, more than 70 student mangers work diligently inside the gates of the house that Rockne built.
Every Friday before a home football game, 54 sophomores, 21 juniors and three seniors gather in the stadium around 2 p.m. After working through the final football practice of the week, these managers take part in one of the richest traditions in college football — the painting of the helmets.
"The best thing about painting the helmets is the tradition and the mystique behind it," said equipment manager Mike Hormuth. "We're the only school in the nation that does this on a weekly basis, and not just anyone can be a part of it."
The common misconception about the student managers is that they are exactly what people have seen in the movie "Rudy" — all fun and no work. Unfortunately for these students, things are not as easy as just painting those helmets and going to a bar afterwards.
"This job takes more dedication than people might expect. We can work anywhere from 45-60 hours during a football week, and then we all have to balance school along with that," said personnel manager Chris Bacsik.
While the rest of his crew prepares things for Saturday's game, head manager senior Mike Ball travels off-campus with the team on Friday nights to help supervise things in their hotel accommodations. Ball chooses one junior manager each week to join him and the team at the hotel. This junior then leads the team into the Basilica on Saturday morning before the game, a responsibility that is appropriately dubbed the "coat and tie" tradition.
Student managers are responsible for the ordinary and the obscure. They set up the field before practices, chart the offensive and defensive plays for every game, and record the amount of time spent on the field for each player. They also make sure each coach has their candy/gum of choice in their respective lockers, and they provide head coach Bob Davie with his supply of caffeine-free Diet Coke for every practice.
"The coaches expect just as much from the managers as they do from the players," said Ball. "I think our role in this organization is a very important one."
Just like the varsity athletes they work with, the student managers have a playbook of their own. The weekly assignments and responsibilities for each manager are posted online every week. While the juniors strictly work with the football team during the season, the sophomore managers are assigned to a variety of sports.
The managers make up a generous mix of males and females. Forty-six females, including 11 from Saint Mary's, are currently involved in the managers' organization.
"Everyone works together on a daily basis," said junior manager Erin West. "We're all working towards the same cause here."
The student managers are admittedly friends as well as working partners. This makes their year-end task even more difficult. Come Nov. 22, the juniors will rank their peers to determine next year's three senior football managers. The sophomores face a similar situation in April, when they rank each other to decide who will obtain the 21 junior manager spots.
"There are many long hours and some bumps in the road when you're a manager," said women's basketball manager Gretchen Schumer. "Overall, though, we have so many doors opened to us, and we receive scholarships for our senior years, which makes everything worthwhile."
Student managers started working for Knute Rockne in the 1920s, and they have been an integral part of the football program ever since.
Junior manager Rob Mallory expressed his feelings on the experience as a whole. "This is something I feel privileged to be a part of. Not all the work we do is glamorous," he said, "but we love what we're doing. I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything in the world."
All Sports Stories for Friday, November 10, 2000
