Ever wonder how a baseball player finds out his batting average, how a hockey player finds out the number of assists he has, or a basketball player finds out her number of rebounds? The answer is easy – a sports manager. Behind every high school sporting team lays one.

A sports manager is a student who voluntarily dedicates time to a specific sport. They have to attend every game, during which they keep the statistics for each player as well as the team. Mostly every sports team at VHS has at least one manager.

A manager’s job is crucial to the team, without them they wouldn’t be able to calculate their improvements, keep track of their accomplishments, or track their vulnerable spots.

What a manager has to do depends on the sport he or she is keeping statistics for. For example a basketball manager keeps track of the player’s shots, assists, points, blocks, steals, and rebounds per game. A baseball manager keeps track of a player’s hits, steals, runs, errors, outs, and plays per game.

Senior Colleen Farrell, two year manager of the varsity basketball team, says “Managing basketball takes a very detail-oriented person. At first I could not take my eyes off the court and I had to watch every single move and play, but after a while I got the hang of it. I would definitely consider it easily adaptable. Now I could basically do it in my sleep.”

Some sports seem to be much more adaptable than others. Managing hockey or basketball may be more challenging than managing baseball or softball because of the pace of the sport. I have been the varsity baseball manager for two years now. Managing baseball was a very simple task to understand simply because there aren’t many things to keep track of as other sports. Although I had to watch the game carefully, keeping the statistics was an easy thing to comprehend.

Senior Gabriella Mottola has been the varsity hockey manager for Verona Glen Ridge hockey since her freshman year. Like many managers, she explains that she loves doing it due to her love for the sport. Gabriella says “being the hockey manager is the closest thing to being on the ice.” Even though she thought it was a challenge at first to keep track of zones, shots on goals, penalties, assists, and plus/minus, she got used to it and says that after her first year she was “an expert.”

Managing a sport is a big necessity to holding the team together. Not only do managers help with the statistics, but some are nice enough to buy the team treats for afterwards. The players appreciate the managers when they are able to quickly go online and check their stats.

Varsity baseball player Tommy DeNicola believes that “the managers for the baseball team are a big help. I am able to easily go online and look up my batting average. They’re a very part of helping the team.”

Although being a sports manager may seem easy a lot of hard work and dedication is put into it. The next time you want to look up sports statistics, just remember who’s behind it all.