Royal spotlight: Team managers

Sports teams at HHS generally have team managers who help out the coaches and the players.

Being a team manager is sometimes like being an assistant coach. The manager becomes a part of the team and spends a lot of time with them. This is why the coach should make sure that they are getting someone who will be beneficial.

“First you have to find someone who’s committed to the team and the team’s goals. You want a manager who is willing to give up their time and put in extra effort to help the team achieve its goals. I think it comes down to selecting managers you trust to know their role: stepping up when there’s work to be done but staying a bit more in the background and letting the team interact independently,” said Coach Jared Anderson, swimming coach.

The managers help to get scores and times during meets or keep stats during games. They also help by getting water during timeouts or doing extra jobs, so the coaches can focus on making the team better.

“Having managers helps allow us coaches to focus more on their techniques rather than their times during meets. It also helps because the managers can relate to the swimmers on a peer level, in terms of cheering people up, encouraging, motivating and keeping swimmers relaxed,” Anderson said.

Team managers are very beneficial to have, but can also be a distraction to some of the players.

“Having team managers can certainly be a distraction, especially when you’ve got girl managers on a boys team or vice versa,” Anderson said.

When the managers aren’t focused on the game or what’s at hand, it can become really distracting.

“It sometimes is distracting because they will not be focused on the game and rather the stands and people in it and that will distract us,” said Tara Lee, junior, volleyball player.

There are a few cons to having team managers, but it is mostly beneficial to the team.

“Having team managers is helpful because during timeouts instead of getting water while trying to listen to our coaches, the managers can get it for us so we can stay focused mentally,” Lee said.

There are many pros to both the players and coaches by having managers. They help them stay focused and allow the players to be able to learn as much as they can.

“The track managers are very helpful to have and they help the coaches stay organized which gives them more time to help us,” said Joe Swenson, senior track runner, “Having managers can be a little bit of a distraction when they don’t care about the team.”

Swenson doesn’t just have experiences with managers for his team he plays on, he is also a manager himself.

“As a manager I had to fill water bottles constantly and bring them to players as they came off or during timeouts,” Swenson, volleyball manager, said, “I also helped the coaches by keeping stats during games and tournaments.”

Team managers aren’t just doing small projects, they sometimes have big responsibilities, especially for meets or games.

“At all the meets I would go and get the times and splits for each race we had someone competing in. I would also help at home meets by making sure I got the girls swim team to help to time the boys’ races. Then at practice I would just help the coach and give an extra hand when needed,” said Ellie Miranda, junior, boys’ swimming manger.