By Kim J. Harmon

 

STORRS – There is more than one way to become involved with the best women’s basketball program in the nation … Stacey Gordon of Newtown found that out.

Since both her parents – Steve and Karen – both went to the University of Connecticut, it was a pretty easy thing for Stacey to become a huge fan of the Lady Huskies. But while it became apparent she wouldn’t be able to play for them, she now works for them as an unpaid team manager.

“When I was younger my parents took me to campus,” said Stacey, 18,  “and I got a chance to meet Jen Rizzotti and Rebecca Lobo. I knew I wanted to go to UConn – I didn’t apply to another school.”

One of the first things she did when she got to the campus in Storrs was search out the email of the head manager to find out about a position with the team. Stacey went to a meeting and had an interview and just like that found herself shagging balls or towels or water bottles for the likes of Ann Strother and Barbara Turner.

“I had no idea what the job would be like,” said Stacey, “but I thought if it was part of the women’s basketball program it would be fun.”

Is it fun to go into head coach Geno Auriemma’s office and polish all the national championship trophies to get ready for a recruiting visit? Is it fun to grab a basketball and fill in at drills during practices? Is it fun to rebound for Minnesota Lynx star Svetlana Abrosimova? Is it fun to get a hug from two-time Naismith Player of the Year Award winner and current Pheonix Mercury star Diana Taurasi?

Well … duh.

“It has been so much fun,” said Stacey.

Stacey is one of a dozen or so students who serve under the head manager, five or six those assigned to each practice and game (the older students are usually the ones who get to travel with the team).

Factoring in class schedules, each manager is assigned at least two days a week and as many as three days a week (although, if they felt like it, they could do more) and probably work as much as five hours each day.

But for Stacey – who is majoring in pre-allied health and medical technology – the whole thing hardly seems like work at all.

“The first time I went to work, they had some of us go into Geno’s office and shine the trophies to get ready for a recruiting visit,” said Stacey. “That made it kind of real.”

And out on the floor, if coach Auriemma needs to run a specific drill and there aren’t enough bodies out there to run it, a manager has to drop the towels and water bottles, pick up a basketball and get ready to play.

“It is unbelievably intimidating,” said Stacey, who played softball at Newtown High School while dabbling just a little in basketball.

But her schedule – and the differing practice schedules – gives her a chance to polish up her own game … maybe by shooting around with the other managers when the players are in film sessions or competing in intramurals (her team even won its division championship).

Her proximity to the program had also given Stacey a chance to observe Geno Auriemma, the winningest coach in Division I women’s basketball history (at 532-103 entering the 2004-05 season, an all-time best .838 winning percentage).

With three losses already this year (including upsets at the hands of Arizona State and Michigan State) and the team ranked outside the top 10 (currently No. 15) for the first time in – well –- forever, coach Auriemma has been challenged like never before but Stacey sees him rising to that challenge.

“He knows what he has to do to get to the girls – to make them work harder. It’s amazing,” she said. “They respond to him like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

Although it appears the three-time defending national champion Lady Huskies will have a more difficult time carving out a path to the Final Four and another national championship, there still will be a lot of excitement in the air and Stacey Gordon will be there to soak it all in.

NOTE: Sean Reilly, a former swimmer at Newtown High School, serves as one of the furry Husky mascots bopping around the gymnasium.