Being cut from a sports team is tough, but coming back to that team and helping its players prepare for games started out as just plain torture.                     
          That’s what basketball team manager Carson Woodley did two years ago after he was cut from the freshman basketball team.

          “I didn’t expect anything to come out of managing that year,” said Woodley, who is now a junior at JD. “But I later found out that being a team manager was really fun and allowed me to be involved with the basketball team as if I was a player.”

         Sophomore Shanna Austin had a similar path to becoming a team manager for basketball.  "I didn't make the sophomore volleyball team this year, but I still wanted to be somewhat involved with sports at JD," said Austin. "Helping out with the team has been great this year and getting service hours off of doing the scoreboard at basketball games feels very rewarding.”

               Woodley and Austin are only two of the six managers assisting the JD Men’s Basketball team, which has started off with a successful 6-5 record.  The managers do a grab bag of tasks like filling up water bottles, taking stats, or taping the game from the stands.

      "My favorite thing to do as a team manager is take stats," said sophomore Alexis Hansen. "Doing stats is very challenging and exhausting, but it is a lot of fun and helped me learn much more about basketball."

      Some students think that being a team manager of a sport will add more stress to their lives, but senior Brock Garn disagrees 100%. “I’m not stressed at all with the work,” said Garn. “We don’t work that long at practices, and the jobs at games are fun to do, so I don’t see why people would think it’s a lot of work.”

      To see these kinds of team players in action, look behind JD's bench and the scorekeeper's table at JD basketball games.