Boasting a roster of 37 players, the Iowa baseball team offers nearly a full squad of student-managers to assist on and off the diamond. From on-field roles to positions in data analytics, video and technology, and operations assistance, the 25 managers embrace their often unseen roles.
For on-field managers Nolan Graham, Andrew Golubow, and Alex Mroz, the crew make themselves at home in bullpens and batting practice, catching fastballs and tracking down line drives. In the dugout, they provide the water and Powerade supply for each team.
Running drills is mostly what they do during practice and before games, but during games, a big responsibility is found in running the game-tracking program, which helps the coaches and players with scouting reports for opposing teams.
“I’d say a good way to kind of encapsulate what we do specifically in our department is everything that allows for the coaches to just truly coach,” Golubow said.
The other departments also have many responsibilities. The big ones include the data analytics team making statistics easier for the coaches and players to look at, video and technology setting up cameras for games and in the bullpens, and the operations assistants helping with whatever director of baseball operations Nic Ungs asks of them, including running the social media.
“It’s just trying to make things as easy and as efficient as possible for the coaches and players,” Mroz said.
“I would say the best comparison for our program, and from what I’ve heard as well, is we operate like a major league baseball team,” Graham said. “If you look at how an MLB organization is structured, it’s basically what we run here.”
One might have some misconceptions about how the managers and players interact, but any notions of alleged superiority aren’t the truth. Gratitude extends both ways.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for every single player,” Mroz said. “None of these guys see themselves as above us just because they’re players and we’re managers.”
The relationship is so good between the players and managers, in fact, the men believe they really do have a big impact on the players.
“When our staff is operating as efficiently and productively as possible, you can really tell in the players’ performances,” Graham said. “It’s good to see the stuff you work on with the players coming to fruition in games.”
Graham, the oldest of the three, and Mroz, the youngest, both have the end goal of being a director of baseball operations for a major or minor league team, but they imagine they’ll work in whatever operations role in baseball they can get. Golubow, a double major in finance and risk management, didn’t always have aspirations to work in baseball but now could see himself working in the more privatized side of the sport.
Graham, Golubow, and Mroz all made it clear that one of the most enjoyable parts of having this position is simply the people you get to meet and be around. The Iowa baseball student-manager tree stems to almost every single major league team and many in the minors.
“One of the biggest changes that I’ve seen throughout the manager program throughout my four years is how well and how close the departments have grown to each other,” Graham said.