Managers contribute to program’s success

STORRS — The centers of attention at the Senior Night festivities at Gampel Pavilion late last month happened to be a starting guard for the Canadian national team and a Nevada native who as a 15-year-old made a legitimate run at earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team as a high jumper.

Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams earned rousing ovations from the crowd before the two seniors and leaders of the undefeated and top-ranked UConn women’s basketball team played their final regularseason game with the Huskies.

Before Nurse and Williams headed out to the court to greet coach Geno Auriemma, some Connecticut natives stepped out of the spotlight for their own unforgettable Senior Night moments.

Four of UConn’s five senior managers hail from Connecticut, including a trio who grew up in a 15mile radius less than an hour from the UConn campus.

Cheshire’s Becca Day, Wallingford’s Danielle LaButis and Meriden’s Mya Rios were strangers when they made the decision to attend the state’s flagship university, but they will leave UConn as close friends eager to enjoy one last ride with the 11-time national champions.

“It’s like a professional environment when we’re here,” LaButis said. “There are a lot of skills that you learn here that you can definitely take with you in life.”

Whether it is getting towels or water bottles for the players, doing loads of laundry or charting statistics during practices and games, the life of a student manager is not a glamorous one, but it is one that earns admiration and appreciation from the UConn players.

“They do a lot and they don’t get any credit for it,” said Williams, an AllAmerican forward. “They do it because they care about us and they care about the program. In my four years, especially with the managers who’ve been here since my freshman year, when they leave here I’ll still have a friendship with them.

“They do things that are important and sometimes go unnoticed; they don’t get the publicity that we do. It’s doing our laundry, making sure we have our water and things are taken care of on the buses. If somebody forgets their socks, they’re on it.”

Rios was the first of the trio to get involved with the women’s program.

She had a substitute teacher in high school, Matt Gade, who was a former manager with the UConn women’s basketball program.

So even before she arrived on campus, Rios had a pretty good idea how to alert the proper person in the program about her desire to be a manager.

“You do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, we try to do as much as we can for the girls so all they have to focus on is what they’re doing on the court,” Rios said.

“If they need something we go out and grab it so they can go out and perform to the best of their ability.”

Rios and LaButis are both engineering majors, and that wasn’t all they had in common.

When LaButis began to pick Rios’ brain about being a manager, it wasn’t long until she was working alongside Rios at practices, film study sessions, games and road trips.

“It’s just trying to get the hang of it just because there’s a lot that goes on here behind the scenes that you don’t really see from being a fan,” LaButis said.

“The first year is a little tricky but by senior year you get the hang of it and it kind of runs more smoothly.”

Day, who is a head manager this season along with Haddam’s Kyle McCormick and Mitchell Simmons of Hartland, Vt., got her start as a manager with the football team.

This is the second season in a row that she has balanced a full academic workload with being a manager for both the football and basketball programs.

“There’s a lot more overlap but I think football is a lot more physical demands, setting up practice and working with coaches,” Day said.

“Here, it’s more of (attending) to the needs of coaches and players, it’s a lot more personal communication here, so I like the mixture of both.”

Day, who was a member of the cross country and lacrosse teams at Cheshire High School, came to UConn intending to major in political science, but with her work as a manager she became a double major, adding sports management to her area of study.

Combining the work of being a double major with the estimated 40 hours a week she works as a manager when the football and basketball seasons overlap makes for a rather hectic schedule for Day.

“The challenge is meeting the high demand of both programs, sort of making sure everything is done behind the scenes so things on the field or on the court can run smoothly,” Day said.

“It’s a lot of tedious tasks sometimes, but we know what needs to be done because we don’t want Coach having to worry about us having to do things, so that’s probably the biggest challenge.”

There’s plenty of chatter about the strong culture and chemistry built within the UConn women’s basketball program.

Nurse and Williams didn’t know each other before their arrival in Storrs and now consider each other best friends. The same can be said about the group of senior managers.

“We’re all super close,” Rios said. “It’s a great group of people to work with and we’re sad to leave.”

When they head home, friends and family members are known to ask them about getting a front-row seat to see the most successful collegiate women’s basketball team in action.

“You get those questions all the time,” Day said. “’ What are the girls like?’ and ‘What’s the coaching staff like?’ I say that what you see is what you get, you see Coach (Auriemma) and the coaching staff with the high demands; the girls they’re having fun on the court and off the court.”