Team behind the team
Student managers for baseball, basketball teams gain experience in sport industry helping student athletes, coaches
Every day after attending his morning classes, Brendon Cozier goes to work. When he arrives at Theunissen Stadium, he begins the chore most of his peers, and members of the Central Michigan baseball team, loathe — laundry.
It's not a glamorous job, but it's an important one.
Cozier is one of the student managers who helps varsity CMU sports teams behind-the-scenes. Although they don't get paid, student team managers say the job is a way for them to stay connected to the sports they love. While they don't contribute to points on the playing field, their impact is tremendous, according to the coaches they assist in a number of ways.
"There are a lot of things that go into a team," said head baseball coach Steve Jaksa. "Some guys are gifted to be players, some guys are gifted to be managers. Brendon is loyal and he gets along with the guys which is important. They embrace him like any other teammate.”
For the love of baseball
Cozier was only able to play baseball until the eighth grade due to an injury, but the sophomore student manager said the sport continues to be a major part of his life — especially as he helps the CMU team prepare for every practice and game day.
Cozier goes to the clubhouse hours before practice to wash and organize equipment and helps the coaching staff and other team members with whatever they might need. This usually means 3 to 4 hour unpaid workdays in addition to the time he spends preparing for classes.
"If they have a belt that broke, I’ll repair that," Cozier said. "I’ll get more batting gloves for whoever needs them and mostly (handle) the equipment side."
On game days, Cozier arrives at the stadium three hours before the first pitch to help the coaching staff write out, organize and review the batting lineup for the day. When the team hits the field, he helps the assistant coaches with video, recording every pitch throughout the game so Jaksa and the players can review it later.
After the games, Cozier is one of the last ones to leave. He spends hours of his own time organizing equipment and cleaning up around the clubhouse.
“What he does for us is a full-time production," Jaksa said. "He’ll stand in at practice or before a game and help us with drills if we need an extra set of hands. He does literally whatever we ask him to do. He'll do it all and we really appreciate that.”
As a Colorado native who transferred to CMU from Northwood University last semester, Cozier grew up watching the Rockies with his father. It was something the two bonded over. It also helped Crozier develop a love of the game. After graduating from high school in 2014 at West Michigan Aviation Academy, Cozier made it his goal to work with a baseball program during his college career.
“I’ve wanted to be in the sports industry ever since I was little,” Cozier said. “Not having a baseball team at my high school really (bothered) me. My ambition was wherever I went to (college), I would be part of that baseball program no matter what it involved.”
After high school, Cozier enrolled at Northwood studying sport management and became one of the first student managers for the Division II Timberwolves. Though he was in his element working with the team, Cozier was unsatisfied with the lack of experience there for him.
“There wasn’t much for me to do and there wasn’t a lot of room to grow,” he said. “It was such a small team. I felt like (the coaches) were struggling to find work for me. That’s not their job to worry about what I can do for them, so I started looking at other schools.”
Back in high school, CMU advisers visited Cozier’s school for a college fair. Central Michigan was only a half hour away from his dorm in Midland, so he decided to explore the options in the Chippewa baseball program.
It was a perfect fit, he thought. Cozier decided to make a phone call. He left Jaksa a message explaining his role at Northwood, that it wasn’t working out and he would love to help out at CMU.
Jaksa called him back that same day for a phone interview. A sit-down interview came a week later.
“It was instantly a home feeling,” Cozier said. “After I came in for a tour, Jaksa shook my hand and acted as if he had known me for a long time."
Admiring Cozier's enthusiasm, Jaksa knew he would be a good fit for the baseball program and was eager to give him an opportunity to be around the sport he loves and gain work experience.
"He loves what he does," Jaksa said of Cozier. "He’s a baseball guy and he wants baseball to be a part of his life and I understand that feeling. We’ll do everything we can to help him. We give him some gear here and there, but I wish we could do more. When you can trust a guy like that and you know he’s going to get things done, that’s a great feeling."
A humbling experience
Though he only does his own laundry once every couple of weeks, senior Ryan Colpitts makes sure the men’s basketball team is well taken care of every day during the season.
During the offseason, Colpitts and fellow student manager Travis McConnell help the coaches with scouting and recruiting, as well as doing individual and team workouts with the student athletes.
"What we do is we try to make things easier for the coaches and players," said McConnell, a Chesterfield junior. "I spend just as much if not more time in the office as I do at practice and at games. The coaches are the ones doing the player analysis in the scouting reports and I'll organize those, keep track of stats and do team comparisons."
Colpitts is a veteran who has never taken the court during a game at CMU. He has been a student manager for the Chippewas since his freshman year. The Niceville, Florida senior fell in love with the sport when he was old enough to dribble a basketball. The hardest part of the job is when Braylon Rayson or Marcus Keene miss a shot. Colpitts and McConnell said they feel helpless on the sidelines.
“Losing is the worst part of this job because we can’t do anything out there on the court,” Colpitts said. “If they’re not doing the defense (techniques) we learned in practice, I can yell from the sideline, but I can’t get out there and actually do what I could have done when I played in high school.”
Colpitts and McConnell both played basketball during high school. When they arrived at CMU, they traded their their high school jerseys for DI stat books, equipment to wash and organize, and towels to wipe puddles of sweat from the hardwood floors.
“A lot of times when you get to college, the opportunity to play isn’t there for us,” Colpitts said. “Being able to be around the sport you’re in love with is a great motivation to wake up every morning.”
Though his vantage point from the sidelines is much different than the one he had playing on his high school court, McConnell said his role is just as important.
“In high school when you were the one playing, you’d never picture yourself as the one cleaning up someone’s sweat,” McConnell said. “It truly is humbling. That’s the only word to describe it.”
Working behind the scenes tending to Division I athletes is something Colpitts hopes to use in his career. The aspiring youth minister said he has “great stories” from the four years he has spent with the Chippewas. Colpitts said his experiences on the basketball court have given him the right mindset for it.
"Being part of the basketball program here, and maybe coaching for a high school team someday, would help me sho
For McConnell, this experience extends further than the basic job description. The manager position requires just as much if not more time in the office organizing statistics as in practices and games. Along with setting up equipment before practice and tending to the coaches and players, McConnell also helps out with scouting reports.
Working closely with the Chippewas and the coaching staff helps prepare McConnell for his future in the collegiate sports industry. After graduating from CMU, he plans to apply to graduate schools around the country to become a grad assistant for a DI basketball program.
McConnell’s ultimate goal is to become a head basketball coach at the collegiate level.
“You have to start at the bottom and work your way up. It’s a blue collar mentality that I’ve always had,” he said. “It’s not like you can just hop to be a coach at a college level."
