A sports team manager is more than just the water boy. They play an integral role in maintaining an efficiently run program.

Having a manager or multiple managers saves the coaches time so that they can focus exclusively on coaching and not other miscellaneous chores such as filling water bottles and organizing equipment.

Specifically, for the boys basketball team, the manager is in charge of running the clock at practice, video taping practices and games and helping with equipment on road trips.

“The expectation is that the managers attend all junior varsity and varsity practices and games. Good managers really benefit the program,” Dan Morrow, head coach, said.

Occasionally, the basketball manager will act as a player for certain passing drills or a rebounder during the pregame warmup. There is a lot that they are asked to do in order to keep the team running smoothly. Solomon Webb, freshman, is one of the basketball managers for this season.

“Being a manager is like being another player. You are still active even though you are on the sidelines,” Webb said.

What Webb likes the most is that he can still be associated with a school athletic team without being an athlete. He enjoys all sports and wants to help those teams excel in any way possible.

The football team also places an equal importance on their manager. Jacob Reaves, senior, has been actively involved as the football manager since his sophomore year.

“I was going to play [football] freshman year, but I didn’t feel like I was helping the team as much as I could. I became a manager to impact the team better,” Reaves said.

Reaves is in charge of making sure the team is ready to go each week whether that is running the video camera during practice or tending to what each player needs. In the three years he has been manager, he has only missed two practices. According to Reaves, the manager position can be difficult at times because numerous tasks have to be done in a short amount of time.

“Sometimes all of the coaches and players are coming at you and you don’t know how to please all of them,” Reaves said.

Nevertheless, the role Reaves and Webb, as well as managers for other sports, play is important to the team dynamic and allowing the coaches and players to practice, improve and get ready for game day.