Written by Athletic Communications Intern, Brendan Billbury 

A player dives on the floor for a loose ball in practice and as soon as they get up there are three people already on the floor with a towel drying off the wet spot left by the player. 

A player walks over to the scorers table during practice to get a swig of water or Gatorade but the bottle they pick up is empty. One of the three people with a ball under their arm and a towel over their shoulder takes the bottle to the water cart and fills it to the top. 

A player stands behind the three-point line and takes a high arching shot, before the ball hits the ground after going through the net, it's caught and passed back to the player who shot it. 

See, what the fans of the Oakland Golden Grizzlies don't get to see is this three-man team in their element. 

They show up to the Athletics Center O'rena an hour before practice to begin their day of serving the needs of the team. It takes a special person to wake up early in the morning to go to a job where they don't get paid and are called upon to do serious physical work.

But that's the thing, they do it gladly and without reservation. Why do they do this? The first question that people ask them when they talk about their job with the Oakland men's basketball team is "do you get paid to do that?" 

If we're talking monetarily, the answer is no. But payment doesn't only come in one form. Payment can be given in experience as well. This is why Griffin Beers, Sam Kell and Jack Galazka do what they do. For the experience. 

"You can't just like basketball and do what we do," Said Sam. 

"Managers are an integral part of the success of a program. They do so much behind the scenes, and their efforts often go unnoticed. The time they invest doing things most people don't want to do is priceless, and we are lucky to have this group here at Oakland." Said Associate Head Coach Jeff Smith. 

They themselves didn't possess the skills or physical attributes that go into playing Division 1 basketball, but they have been able to stay in the game at this level because of their willingness to sacrifice time and effort for the betterment of their team. 
 

"After high school a lot of players don't get the chance to be a part of a team again and I think there's nothing like that. Being a manager is different than playing for the team because you're like the team within the team so you're part of a really tight-knit group. Like, if we go to the NCAA Tournament, none of us are good enough to do that as a player but we still have an impact on the team," Said Griffin. 

If their jobs are done well, the work that they do goes virtually unnoticed. But it's surely recognized and appreciated by the coaching staff and the players. Without them, a lot of the behind the scenes work must be done by people who have to worry about scouting reports, their student-athlete's grades and recruiting high school players for the future. 

Griffin, Sam and Jack all share a common long-term goal. They all want to coach basketball. What better way to gain experience outside of playing college or professional basketball than to spend almost every day around the game and around a true icon in the coaching world, Greg Kampe. 

"I've realized that I'm learning way more than I probably would have playing. I've learned so much from watching Coach Kampe over the past six months," Said Jack. 

Each manager gains experience from their job that will help them later in their careers. They learn how to look at the game as a coach, they learn how to interact with student-athletes and they learn necessary skills to move up in the world of college basketball. 

Coach Smith knows this to be true, he spent the second two years of his undergrad as a student assistant and the junior varsity coach. 

He speaks fondly of his experience as a student assistant, he learned about the world of coaching in college basketball while still completing his undergrad degree. 

Coach Smith says, "My experiences working as a student assistant afforded me the opportunity to really gain invaluable experience while still working toward my degree. I was able to coach, recruit, and learn the daily duties of an assistant. It prepared me well for my career."

At larger programs around the country this becomes tougher. Some programs have upwards of 15 managers on staff. Oakland has one-fifth of that. This means the managers here have opportunities to learn the skills that will make them successful as their time with the game continues. 

With bigger programs, there are defined roles for managers whereas managers at Oakland have to be able to do everything. This makes them extremely adaptable and able to take on tasks given to them. 

Employers in all fields look for these traits in candidates, being a manager prepares people for success in basketball and in life. 

A recent success story for managers is the story of Lawrence Frank. Frank was a manager for Bobby Knight at Indiana in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Based on Knight's recommendation, he received a job offer from Kevin O'Neill, the coach for Marquette at the time. 

Frank has gone on to be a head coach and assistant coach at the highest level with tenures with the formerly called New Jersey Nets and the Detroit Pistons as a head coach and time with the Vancouver Grizzlies and Boston Celtics as an assistant. 

The role of a student manager is crucial to those who want to coach at the college level or above but don't have the talent or physical ability to play beyond high school. 
 

If the cost of staying in the game of basketball is wiping up sweat, doing laundry, cleaning the locker room, filling up water bottles and filming games in a tight box on the concourse of the O'rena, Griffin, Sam and Jack are willing to pay it.